Maryland Professional Athletes

Kaila Charles Leads the Way for Maryland Alumni in WNBA's Final Week

The WNBA's stretch run gave Maryland alumni plenty to talk about, and Kaila Charles delivered the headline moment.

The Golden State Valkyries guard matched her career-high with 12 rebounds while adding 16 points and four steals in a dominant 70-57 win over the Seattle Storm on Saturday night — Golden State's sixth consecutive victory. The performance cemented the Valkyries (31-11) in second place behind Minnesota heading into the final stretch of the regular season. Charles was the engine of a balanced offensive effort that also featured 11-point contributions off the bench from rookies Juste Jocyte and Laeticia Amihere, and a 10-point night from veteran Tiffany Hayes.

Charles wasn't done for the week. She picked up six points and six rebounds in a Wednesday road loss to Portland before contributing three points and five rebounds in a narrow 76-75 win over Los Angeles on Friday. The back-to-back-to-back schedule showed the workload she's shouldered for Golden State down the stretch, and her Saturday outburst set the tone.

Diamond Miller Puts Up Numbers in Connecticut

Over in the East, Connecticut Sun forward Diamond Miller made her presence felt across all three of her outings this week. She opened the period with 15 points, two rebounds, and a steal in a Sunday loss to Minnesota, then turned in arguably her most complete game on Tuesday — 19 points, six rebounds, two assists, three blocks, and a steal against Washington, even in a 79-69 Connecticut defeat. She finished the week with a quieter three-point effort Thursday against Toronto.

The stat line across the week speaks to Miller's two-way impact, even as the Sun navigated a difficult closing schedule.

Elsewhere Around the League

Chloe Bibby of the Minnesota Lynx had her best game of the week on Wednesday, posting 15 points and a plus-6 in a 96-77 Indiana win. Her Sunday and Friday appearances were quieter, but the week-over-week production shows a player finding her footing late in the year.

Shyanne Sellers chipped in two assists and a steal — and a plus-11 — for the Los Angeles Sparks in a blowout win over Portland on Sunday, a bright individual note in what's been a difficult Sparks season.

Shatori Walker-Kimbrough logged minutes for the Atlanta Dream in their Tuesday and Thursday matchups against New York, though neither game produced notable counting stats for the Maryland product.

The Big Picture

It was Charles who made the strongest case this week for Maryland's WNBA footprint. A 16-point, 12-rebound, four-steal line in a playoff-positioning win is the kind of all-around statement game that doesn't come around often. With Golden State locked into a battle for seeding, Charles's ability to impact the game across multiple categories is exactly what the Valkyries need heading into the postseason.

The Injury That Changes Everything

The timing couldn't be worse. With four regular season games remaining and a playoff spot on the line, the Atlanta Dream officially announced that four-time All-Star Brionna Jones will miss the remainder of the 2026 WNBA season with a left leg injury — a blow that strips the team of its most experienced frontcourt presence at the worst possible moment.

Jones had already been sidelined since August 13, when she sustained the injury in a game against the Connecticut Sun. She managed just nine appearances this season after returning from offseason knee surgery, averaging 8.2 points and 5.6 rebounds per game. The campaign has been a cruel sequence of setbacks for the veteran center, whose star-level impact when healthy makes her absence all the more pronounced.

For Maryland fans tracking the WNBA, this is the defining story of the week — and arguably of the Dream's entire season.

Dream Carry On — and Carry the Load

Atlanta isn't folding. On Thursday, September 17, the Dream blew out the Sun 103–59, a wire-to-wire statement win in which fellow Maryland alumna Shatori Walker-Kimbrough chipped in 4 points, 2 assists, and a plus/minus of +11. Two nights later, the Dream handled the Chicago Sky 106–81, with Walker-Kimbrough contributing 2 rebounds in the victory.

Maryland's Diamond Miller was on the wrong side of Thursday's blowout — her Connecticut Sun dropped 59 to Atlanta's 103 — though individual stat lines for Miller were not available from that contest.

Other Terps Around the League

Maryland's footprint across the WNBA remained visible elsewhere this week. Kaila Charles turned in a quietly useful outing for the Golden State Valkyries on Saturday, putting up 7 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, a steal, and a block in an 82–66 win over Portland, finishing with a +6 plus/minus.

Shyanne Sellers logged 4 points and 2 rebounds for the Los Angeles Sparks in a 77–97 loss to Dallas on Friday, a tough result for an LA squad still searching for consistency late in the season.

The Bigger Picture

The Dream head into the playoff stretch as a team defined by its resilience — and its roster depth is now being stress-tested in real time. Jones's absence creates a void in the frontcourt that no single player can fully replace, but Atlanta's recent performances suggest the group is rallying around the moment rather than retreating from it.

For Maryland faithful, this week is a study in contrasts: a program-defining player watching from the sideline while her former college teammates quietly grind through the final stretch of a WNBA season. Jones's postseason hopes may be over, but the Dream's are very much alive.