Photo credit: Sports Radio Service/Shawn McCullough

By Shawn McCullough

The Aces proved that they could play with the best.

Las Vegas beat the 2018 WNBA champion Seattle Storm, 60-56 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

But despite struggling in the first half, the Aces pulled out the win.

“I’m not happy one bit,” said head coach Bill Laimbeer. “I told the players at the halftime that I was embarrassed for our players and our team. I thought we had no life. An important game like this, a game that we needed to win, and we laid an egg in the first half. I was embarrassed. At the end of the game, we won the game but I’m disturbed because any adversity that comes our way we don’t respond to it.”

Liz Cambage led the Aces with 14 points and 13 rebounds, while A’ja Wilson added 12.

“We don’t know how to be consistent,” said Cambage. “That’s pretty much it right now. We gotta learn how to win and how to stick with it and come out aggressive.”

The Aces turned the ball over 17 times and shot just 31.4% from the field.

“All wins can’t be beautiful, I wish they could,” said Wilson. “We learned that we need to grind things out. Nothing is easy in this league and we have to attack every single game like it’s a playoff game, that’s where we got caught up a little bit. For us to win this game against the defending champions is definitely something that we should be proud of, but in situations like the way we played we shouldn’t be proud of that at all.”

With the win, the Aces improved to 6-4 on the season heading into a game in Los Angeles on Thursday against the Sparks.

Las Vegas Aces – http://aces.wnba.com

Game Notes:

• Liz Cambage recorded her second double-double of the season.
• The win moves the Aces to two games over .500 for the first time since the 2014 season in San Antonio.
• The Aces outscored the Storm 16-0 in fast break points.
• 4,215 fans attended the game.

Game Starters:

F – 22 A’ja Wilson
F – 21 Kayla McBride
C – 8 Liz Cambage
G – 0 Jackie Young
G – 10 Kelsey Plum