Photo credit: Shawn McCullough, Sports Radio Service

By Shawn McCullough

LAS VEGAS — The Las Vegas Aces won their first game in franchise history with an 85-73 victory over the Washington Mystics at the Mandalay Bay Event Center Friday night.

“This is very important that we get our first win,” said head coach Bill Laimbeer. “You want to get rid of the monkey as fast as possible in any sport. Overall, it was a very important win for us.”

It’s tough winning in this league, so for us to finally to get a win is exciting for us,” said forward A’ja Wilson. “I am glad that we got it at home so the fans can continue to come out and support us.”

Five different Aces scored in double digits including Wilson who had 26 points and 12 rebounds. Wilson went to the free throw line 18 times, making 14 shots.

“It can’t take just one or two people, it takes the team,” said Wilson.  “I’m super-duper excited to see that we are all getting the ball, everyone is kind of scoring and sharing the basketball.”

After giving up an average of 103 points in their last two games, the Aces held the Mystics to just 73 points. Prior to tonight’s game, the Mystics averaged 86.67 points per game.

“We really didn’t play defense well (the last two games) the way that we know that our system operates, so we needed to come out with a mindset and say that we weren’t going to let that happen again,” said Wilson.

With the win, the Aces improved to 1-4 on the season.

The Aces will next play the Sky in Chicago on Sunday, June 3^rd.  This will be the first meeting of the season between the Aces and the Sky.

Las Vegas Aces – http://aces.wnba.com

Game Starters:

F – 22 A’ja Wilson
F – 12 Nia Coffey
C – 8 Carolyn Swords
G – 21 Kayla McBride
G – 15 Lindsay Allen