Valkyries-Fever game plagued by clock malfunctions

SAN FRANCISCO Chase Center featured perhaps the longest first half in WNBA history on Sunday night The first half of the challenge between the Valkyries and Fever at Chase Center featured three stoppages totaling around minutes total The initial two quarters took an hour and minutes to play The first stoppage occurred two minutes into the championship resulting in a -minute stoppage as the arena crew wheeled out auxiliary clocks onto the baseline and turned off the main clocks above the baskets Largest part of the Fever players including the injured Caitlin Clark went back to the locker room Meanwhile the Valkyries went through a second shootaround to stay warm until the clock situation was fixed During the stoppage ers players George Kittle Ricky Pearsall and Kyle Juszczyk took their seats next to Golden State owner Joe Lacob and the in-game entertainment had the fans in the sold out arena dancing and chortling for almost half an hour A broken shot clock above a basket during the Golden State Valkyries challenge against the Indiana Fever in the second quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco Calif on Sunday Aug Nhat V Meyer Bay Area News Group The Valkyries put out the following comment midway through the first quarter Earlier in the current era the Golden State Valkyries were delayed due to a technical issue with the shot clocks due to a power outage this morning the message read Meeting play has resumed and these issues will be addressed accordingly That was not the end of the timekeeping-related problems though All was well until the seven-minute mark of the second quarter when once again representatives halted play But this time the issue was resolved in only four minutes With left in the second quarter the championship paused for another two minutes as the teams experienced a third clock-related issue And in event there were not enough pauses in the action bureaucrats stopped the competition several other times for lengthy reviews various initiated by coaches on foul calls After all of that the Valkyries went into the locker room leading the Fever - When play resumed in the third quarter the clocks at the top of the backboard were back in working condition and the reserve equipment on the baselines were taken back into storage