Fourteen seconds after Jordan Harrison's 3-pointer pulled Portland within 30-21, Kayla Thornton hit a short jumper. Golden State scored the next 15 points. The Fire did not score for more than five minutes.
Thornton finished with 17 points Sunday in Portland. Tiffany Hayes led Golden State with 18 in an 86-69 win, the Associated Press reported. ESPN's recap lists the same score. The quarters on ESPN were 28-14, 19-11, 23-26 and 16-18. Golden State is 29-11, two games behind Minnesota. ABC News and Sportsnet carried the AP account.
The 15-0 that decided the half
The Fire had just completed a 12-3 run. Harrison's 3 made it 30-21 with six minutes left before halftime. Thornton's jumper flipped the possession, and Portland did not score again for more than five minutes, the AP said. That stretch turned a nine-point game back into a runaway. ESPN's halftime score was 47-25.
The first quarter had already gone Golden State's way. Kaitlyn Chen's 3-pointer capped a 13-0 run and made it 15-4 a little more than five minutes in, and the Valkyries led by as many as 19 before the break in the period. ESPN's first-quarter score was 28-14. Chen finished with 15 points. Veronica Burton and Kaila Charles each scored 11.
Thornton was one off Hayes for the night. The first Golden State burst was Chen's 13-0. The second, the one that stopped Portland's only real push of the half, started on Thornton's jumper.
ESPN's second quarter was 19-11 Golden State, the period that held the 15-0 run. By the time the Fire scored again, the nine-point hole Harrison had just cut was a 24-point halftime deficit on ESPN's board.
Twelve points each, then a 17-point loss
Emily Engstler and Megan DiLeo scored 12 apiece for the Fire (16-24). Bridget Carleton added 11. Portland had won 101-83 at Atlanta on Friday to end a three-game skid, then ran into the drought in the second quarter Sunday.