Somebody had to clean the glass while the scorers traded haymakers. On Friday in San Francisco, that somebody was Jessica Shepard for all 40 minutes.
The Dallas Wings still lost Game 3 of the first round, 77-73, as the Golden State Valkyries completed a 16-point second-half comeback and won the series 2-1 for the first playoff series victory in franchise history. Shepard's double-double will not soften the final score. It does explain how Dallas led by 16 in the third before the night turned.
Forty minutes on the boards
Per ESPN's box score, Shepard scored 12 points on 6-of-11 shooting with 12 rebounds - two offensive, 10 defensive - plus two assists and one turnover in 40 minutes. She finished a minus-3 while Arike Ogunbowale scored 30 and Paige Bueckers added 17 with six assists. Basketball-Reference lists her at nearly 40 full minutes; she sat only a handful of seconds in the fourth.
In an elimination road game against a sellout Chase Center crowd of 18,064, that workload is the difference between a lead that exists and a lead that collapses without anyone hitting the defensive glass.
Shepard's first-half work helped Dallas take a 44-37 edge into the locker room. The Wings then scored the first eight points of the third - completing an 18-0 run across the break, per the Valkyries' recap - and held Golden State to 0-for-9 shooting before Veronica Burton's deep three ended the drought. Shepard kept collecting misses on both ends while that swing unfolded.
Quiet production when the bench went quiet
Dallas' reserves scored eight points. Golden State's bench poured in 31, led by Tiffany Hayes' 18. That gap meant Shepard, Ogunbowale, Bueckers and Awak Kuier (six points, three blocks) had to cover possessions the Wings usually spread across a deeper rotation.
Shepard's efficiency - better than 50 percent from the field on limited attempts - was the complementary line under Ogunbowale's volume and Bueckers' 10-of-10 free-throw night.
