The Golden State Valkyries finally found a way past the Minnesota Lynx on August 24, but their historic moment came with a fiery moment between two former UConn stars. Napheesa Collier and Tiffany Hayes were caught in a physical altercation during the game, with cameras catching the entire thing.
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The sequence occurred in the first quarter. With about 4:57 left on the clock and the Lynx leading 8-4, Hayes grabbed and held onto Collier’s arm as Minnesota brought the ball up, hooking it. The exchange was caught on camera and posted to X by @TWDTV1
Referees immediately called her for a foul, and the two stepped up against each other, with multiple teammates having to step in to prevent it from escalating further.
Notably, the two players both played at UConn but were never teammates. Hayes won two championships with the squad as a freshman and sophomore, and played for the Huskies from 2008 to 2012. Collier’s time in Storrs was similar, winning a championship in her freshman season and playing for the team from 2015-16 to 2018-19.
Unfortunately for Collier, the latest face-off between the two teams became a loss to remember. The Valkyries eventually won the game 80-66, marking their first win against Minnesota after losing all nine matches against them across the regular season and the playoffs since starting as an expansion club in 2025. This was also the lowest point total Minnesota has been held to all season. The Lynx were only able to pull off two steals, as compared to the Valkyries’ 12. The Lynx also had 18 turnovers, yielding 21 points for the Valkyries. In contrast, the Golden State gave away only three points off of nine turnovers.
What made the win even more impressive was that Collier was held to just 4-of-10 shooting for nine points and seven rebounds. Hayes outdid her opponent, finishing the game with 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting, adding three rebounds and four assists.
What undoubtedly made the game all the more satisfying was that after the Valkyries’ previous loss to the Lynx on August 19, Hayes had promised that her side would bounce back.
“I said at the end — that’s the worst they’re probably ever gonna see us,” Hayes told reporters in the postgame conference.
The scoring effort for the Valkyries was led by former Lynx player Cecilia Zandalasini, who finished the game with 18 points, ending a two-game losing streak to prevent the Lynx from securing the #1 seed. Golden State now sits five games behind them in the standings at the #2 seed.
Minnesota’s weakness that night was its poor shooting from the starters. Olivia Miles, Kayla McBride, and Natasha Howard missed a combined 23 of 31 shots, with only Maya Caldwell shooting above 40% from the field among the five starters.
The team sorely missed All-Star Courtney Williams, who sat out due to a right foot injury and her scoring punch. Interestingly, this was the first game Williams has missed since joining the team in 2024, marking an end to an impressive 122-game streak.
The biggest takeaway from the night was an impressive win for the Valkyries, and somewhere in the middle, a heated exchange between two stars became the talk of the game.