Stephanie White Addresses Unforeseen Issue in Fever's Loss Against Valkyries

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Paolo Songco | Last updated Sep 1, 2025 12:24 AM ET

The Indiana Fever are back at eighth place in the WNBA after Sunday’s tough loss to the Golden State Valkyries. The Fever came to Chase Center looking to pull off an upset against the home team, but they ultimately came up short, 75-63.

The Valkyries, on the other hand, improved from eighth to sixth in the standings after Sunday’s victory, thereby inching closer to securing a playoff berth in their debut season.

The Fever-Valkyries game was marred by an unwanted incident early in the first quarter. This is after a shot clock issue caused multiple delays two minutes into the game. The arena staff at Chase Center eventually resolved the problem, but only after it caused an in-game delay of more than 30 minutes.

Fever head coach Stephanie White addressed the incident during her postgame press conference.

“It affected the rhythm of the game,” White admitted, via Fever beat reporter Tony East. “I don’t know if it affected the readiness. We came out and weren’t ready those first five to six minutes of the quarter.”

White did not blame the delay for Fever’s loss. After all, it happened very early in the game, and Indiana had every opportunity to steal this one away. Nevertheless, the veteran shot-caller admitted that the unexpected turn of events did have a significant impact on the game.

The Valkyries outscored the Fever 25-14 after the first quarter, with Indiana, as White pointed out, looking out of sync after the shot clock issue. They were able to cut down Golden State’s lead to just seven points entering the fourth quarter, but the Valkyries were ultimately able to hold them off to secure the big win.

The Fever, who fell to 21-19 after Sunday’s loss, will be looking to get back to winning ways on Tuesday when they return to action in another road game against the Phoenix Mercury.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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