Photo credit: Shawn McCullough, Sports Radio Service

By Shawn McCullough

Throughout the season, head coach Bill Laimbeer has characterized his team as young, but his team is now showing signs of resiliency late in games.

The Aces rolled off 12 straight points late in the fourth quarter to beat the Connecticut Sun 94-90 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

“The character of our team is still growing,” said Laimbeer.  “We’re a work in progress but I think this win today goes a long way to helping us build our character. We were down but we did not hang our heads. That’s the one thing that we did not do. We came out in the fourth quarter with the determination to win the game.”

Rookie A’ja Wilson registered her eighth double-double of the season, scoring 34 points and pulling down 14 rebounds, while Kayla McBride scored 27.

Key contributions also came from guard Kelsey Plum with 10 assists and center JiSu Park with nine rebounds.

“I was just really proud of how we fought back,” said McBride.  “It was a team effort and that’s how you have to win and that’s how you have to play games.”

“We really held our composure,” said Wilson on their fourth quarter comeback.  “We know basketball is a game of runs and we know that Connecticut keeps on going. Like coach says, they’re a front-running team. When they get going, we have to just stay within ourselves and keep attacking them in any way. Just control what we can control and I think we did a great job of doing that.”

With the win, the Aces improved to 8-12 on the season, matching the total number of wins of last year’s team, the San Antonio Stars, who went 8-26.

“We are only a game and a half out of a playoff spot right now and we did match last year’s win total today and we have 14 more to go.  I call that progress.”

The Aces trail the Atlanta Dream by 1.5 games for the eighth spot in the WNBA standings, as the top eight teams in the league make the playoffs.

The Aces will next play the Sky on Tuesday in Chicago.

Las Vegas Aces – http://aces.wnba.com

Game Notes:

• A’ja Wilson scored in double figures (34) for the 20th straight game.
• The Aces have now won two straight games and three of their last four.
• 3,363 Aces fans were in attendance.

Game Starters:

F – 22 A’ja Wilson
F – 1 Tamera Young
C – 3 Kelsey Bone
G – 21 Kayla McBride
G – 10 Kelsey Plum