Las Vegas NV – Coming off an overtime loss to the Los Angeles Sparks, the Las Vegas Aces played against the Dallas Wings who are down three players due to injury this season, came out with the next man up mentality giving the Aces all they could handle in the first half scoring 26 points in the paint, with a two point lead towards the end of the second quarter. But the Wings defense allowed the Aces led by Plum and Wilson to score 8 unanswered points, before the Wings scored again late into the second quarter, cutting the Aces lead to 3 points before the half. The Wings finished the game scoring 40 plus points in the paint, but it wasn’t enough to secure the win.
The Aces came out in the third quarter up just three points, turned up their defensive pressure forcing the Wings into making errant mistakes that were costly. The 9 Wing turnovers lead to the Aces scoring 13 point giving them their first biggest lead in the game of 16 points almost midway through the third quarter. Aces A’Ja Wilson and her Aces teammates Kelsey Plum who scored 23 points and Jackie Young with 18 points made sure their team didn’t let the lead slip away, because the Dallas Wings was fighting back and cutting the lead to single digits behind Odyssey Sims 25 points, Natasha Howard 14 points and Arike Ogunbowale 13 points.
The Wings tried to take advantage of the size mismatch they had against the Aces front court in the paint with Teaira McCowan but it wasn’t enough to slow down the Aces in this game.
The Vegas defense today stepped up forcing the Wings into turning the ball over to push the lead to 22 points in the game. The Aces were not going to be denied the victory today led by the new Las Vegas Aces All Time Franchise Leading Scorer, A’Ja Wilson who set the new record to 4301 points passing Sophia Young-Malcolm who was in attendance formerly held the record with 4300 points. Wilson finished the game with 28 points and 10 rebounds another double-double for the WNBA 2 Time MVP.