Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson (22) reacts after drawing a foul after a shot made during the WNBA game against the Toronto Tempo on Friday, August 28, 2026, at Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.(RJ Forbus – The Sporting Tribune)

By Rich Perez

With the season rapidly winding down, the Las Vegas Aces (26-13) took on the Toronto Tempo at Michelob ULTRA Arena (11-27) and winding down the season on a winning note with a 93-73 win.

Currently in third place, Las Vegas would love to finish with a winning streak and possibly pull into second place in the standings. Friday night they took on one of the new franchises and the first WNBA team located outside the United States.

The Tempo are going through the growing pains that any new franchise more often than not experience. Las Vegas will be looking for their third win in a row.

The first quarter came to an end with the Aces taking a 27-17 lead. Las Vegas would be looking to extend that lead in the second quarter, the goal to build a significant lead going into the half. Las Vegas did indeed extend their lead outscoring the Tempo 29-22 in the second quarter and taking a 56-39 lead into the locker room at the half.

Las Vegas barely outscored the Tempo in the third quarter but continued to lead 74-55. The Tempo had dug themselves into a pretty deep hole as they continued to struggle against the all-around solid play from Las Vegas. Toronto played the Aces pretty even in the fourth quarter.

GAME NOTES

The Aces came out strong in the opening quarter. As Las Vegas have seen often, Jackie Young was on fire hitting three shots from beyond the arc. She finished the quarter with 12 points and was 4-of-6 shooting with three assists.

Las Vegas had excellent pressure forcing nine Toronto turnovers while only committing one. They created extra possessions and easy scoring chances. They were shooting 47% from the field and 40% from beyond the arc. The Tempo were shooting 43% from the field and 33% from three. A’Ja Wilson was helping create offense taking up residence inside.

The Aces continued their defense and the hot start from Jackie Young in the second quarter and that was making all the difference so far in this game. They did extend their lead in the second quarter outscoring the Tempo 29-22 and taking a 56-39 lead at halftime.

The largest lead for the Aces in the first half was 18 points. They were playing really clean with only five fouls and had 18 points in the paint. At the half the Aces only had one turnover while the 11 turnovers for Toronto resulted in ten Las Vegas points. The Aces also had six steals.

Toronto had 12 fouls sending Las Vegas to the line where they hit 13 of 14 shots. The Tempo was four of four from the line. The Tempo was really struggling with the Aces intensity and especially their defense. Las Vegas would like to close out this game in the third quarter.

A’Ja Wilson had already made 18 points in the first half with Jackie Young right behind her with 17. Off the bench Cheyenne Parker-Tyrus was on edge of double digits with nine points in only six minutes on the court.

Early in the third quarter the Aces extended their lead to 21, their largest of the game. They had beaten the Tempo last Sunday 88-78 in Toronto and were on course to create even more of a margin in Friday night’s game.

Toronto refused to back down however. The Tempo went on a 8-0 run five minutes into the quarter and the Aces needed to put a stop to the Toronto rally. The Aces 21 point lead had been shaven down to 13 points by the Tempo and Las Vegas had to get back on track.

The Aces had three turnovers in the third quarter as the Tempo brought a lot more intensity to the third quarter. Toronto was playing even with the Aces in the third quarter. As the quarter came to an end Las Vegas had pushed their lead back out to 74-55 outscoring the Tempo in the third 18-16. Toronto was going to back down although they had dug themselves into a pretty deep hole in the first half.

The Aces brought the pressure in the fourth quarter extending their lead back out to 87-62 their largest lead of the game with a little over five minutes left in the game. It would seem that the fourth quarter meltdowns that the Aces were dealing with a while ago had been completely cleaned up and they were peaking at the perfect time.

The Aces head to Seattle to face the Seattle Storm at Climate Pledge Arena just under the Space Needle on Sep 17th for a 7:00pm PDT tip.