Photo credit: AP Photo/John Locher

By Shawn McCullough

The dream of a WNBA championship for the Las Vegas Aces faded away on Tuesday night.

The Washington Mystics won the best of five series, three games to one, with a 94-90 victory over the Aces at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.

“At this point, obviously, we’d like to win our home games and move on to game five and throw it up and see who wins, but it didn’t happen,” said head coach Bill Laimbeer. “I told our players to hold their heads high.  I think that this was not a brutal loss.   We got beat by a basketball team that out-executed us and they played very well.”

Liz Cambage led the Aces with 25 points and 12 rebounds, while Dearica Hamby came off the bench and added 18.

“It was a very interesting season, but definitely my favorite season that I have ever had in the WNBA,” said Cambage.

The Aces will head into the 2020 season with five unrestricted free agents: Liz Cambage, Tamera Young, Sugar Rodgers, Carolyn Swords, Jaime Nared.

“Going forward, we are all excited about this situation,” said Laimbeer about their team for next season. “We will make some changes, obviously every team does.  We know some pieces that we need.”

“I love this team, I love my teammates, I love this city,” said Cambage. “This is hands down the best organization that I have ever been a part of and hopefully they will have me back for next season because I don’t want to be anywhere else.”

Las Vegas Aces – http://aces.wnba.com

Series Results:

Game 1 – Mystics 97, Aces 95
Game 2 – Mystics 103, Aces 91
Game 3 – Aces 92, Mystics 75
Game 4 – Mystics 94, Aces 90

Game Notes:

• A’ja Wilson scored just four points in 26 minutes, going 1 for 4 from the field.
• The Mystics will return to the WNBA Finals in back to back seasons.
• The Aces out-rebounded the Mystics 39-29.

Game Starters:

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