The WNBA All-Star weekend got off to a banger of a start on Friday night. No messing around: let’s get into the results of the WNBA 3-Point Contest and the Skills Challenge.
Skills Challenge Results
It was a close-fought first round. The tone was set by Courtney Williams, who had tons of confidence in her ability to win. That was quickly dispatched by Natasha Cloud, who beat her time immediately, putting Williams on the bubble. She barely scraped by Skylar Diggins, who couldn’t knock down her jumpers. Then Erica Wheeler stepped in.
Smoked layup aside, she played it as clean as you can. That put the pressure on Allisha Gray, the defending champion in both the WNBA All-Star Skills Challenge and 3-Point Contest. But she fell just a few seconds short, sending Wheeler and Cloud to the final round.
Erica redeemed herself in the final round, making the layup this time. It was a strong showing with a 37.5 second performance. She didn’t miss a single pass over the two rounds. That’s skill that kills. But Natasha Cloud had the final say, and made herself heard.
She knocked down some clutch shots and drained her passes, going into the last shot with only a few seconds on the clock. Cloud’s layup fell through with 1.1 seconds on the clock, bringing home the Skills Challenge trophy and the prize money.
Cloud (+400 on the DraftKings Sportsbook) won as an absolute underdog. It was a heck of a showing for Tasha.
3-Point Contest Results
We had a banger of a first round in the second event. Kelsey Plum and Sonia Citron set the bar with strong first rounds, putting pressure on the rest of the field. Lexie Hull, the hometown replacement, clutched up with 20 to stay alive. But the heavy hitters hadn’t come yet.
Sabrina Ionescu, owner of the greatest 3-point contest performance in history, racked up 25 to take the lead over the field. That left it up to Allisha Gray, the defending 2024 champ, to clear 22 points. She responded with a crisp 25. A nice spot of revenge after losing in the Skills Competition just minutes before.
Now we’re down to a final round between the last two contest winners: Allisha Gray and Sabrina Ionescu.
To the surprise of nobody, Sabrina Ionescu went off. After missing the first couple of shots, she caught fire, making an entire left wing rack and both Starry balls on the way to 31 total points. Somehow not her best final round. That put a ton of pressure on Allisha Gray to defend her crown.
31 points is a lot to overcome. After missing her first four shots, Allisha was behind the eight ball. She caught fire on the moneyball rack, but it wasn’t enough. Sabrina Ionescu won her second 3-point contest in three years. That gave Liberty players a sweep of Friday’s events. Start the party in Indy.
