Category: Miscellaneous
Aces fall to Wings 68-55 in preseason finale
Photo credit: Shawn McCullough, Sports Radio Service
By Shawn McCullough
The Las Vegas Aces finished their preseason with a 68-55 loss to the Wings in Dallas.
A’ja Wilson struggled in her second professional game shooting just 4 for 17 from the field and scoring nine points. Wilson dominated on the boards, pulling down a game-high 12 rebounds.
Tamera Young led the team in scoring with 11 points.
12 Aces players logged minutes in preparation for Las Vegas’ season opener on Sunday, May 20th against the Connecticut Sun in Uncasville, CT.
With the loss, the Aces finished the preseason 1-1, after a 98-63 win over the Chinese National Team in Las Vegas last weekend.
The Aces will play their home games this season at the Mandalay Bay Events Center and will play their first regular season home game on Sunday, May 27th against the Seattle Storm.
Las Vegas Aces – http://aces.wnba.com
Game Starters:
C – 22 A’ja Wilson
F – 19 JiSu Park
F – 1 Tamera Young
G – 12 Nia Coffey
G – 51 Sydney Colson
Aces win first ever game in Las Vegas 98-63
Photo credit: Shawn McCullough, Sports Radio Service
By Shawn McCullough
The WNBA made its debut in Las Vegas as the first year Aces defeated the Chinese National Team 98-63 in preseason play at the Mandalay Bay Events Center Sunday.
The first overall pick in the 2018 WNBA draft, A’ja Wilson, led the Ace in scoring with 20 points and added seven rebounds while Nia Coffey added 15 points.
“I was nervous,” Wilson said of her first professional game. “But once I got out there and I kind of saw my teammates getting hyped, it kind of really helped me out in that situation.”
“We know she’s going to do well,” said guard and Las Vegas native Sequoia Holmes of Wilson. “I personally think that she is going to be better as a pro than as a college player because teams are not going to be able to sit in the paint or double her”
The Aces trailed 28-27 with 5:55 left in the second quarter, but went on a 20-3 run to break open the game.
“It was because of our defensive pressure,” head coach Bill Laimbeer said of the 20-3 run. “We started running some fresh legs and really got after their guards. We want to be a much better team than San Antonio was last year and they really got after it and got some turnovers.”
Before coming to the Aces, Laimbeer coached the New York Liberty from 2013 to 2017 and the Detroit Shock from 2002 to 2009.
Prior to relocating to Las Vegas this season, the Aces were the San Antonio Stars from 2002 to 2017. The team struggled the last three seasons with a combined 23-79 record.
The Aces will play their home games this season at the Mandalay Bay Events Center and will play their first regular season home game on Sunday, May 27th against the Seattle Storm.
Las Vegas Aces – http://aces.wnba.com
Game Notes: The Chinese National Team will also play a preseason game against the Los Angeles Sparks on May 12th.
2,091 fans were in attendance, despite the Vegas Golden Knights playing Game 6 of the NHL Playoffs against the Sharks in San Jose at the same time.
Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval was in attendance, sporting a UNLV shirt.
Game Starters:
C – 22 A’j Wilson
F – 1 Tamera Young
F – 3 Kelsey Bone
G – 12 Nia Coffey
G – 51 Sydney Colson
Giants blank Padres 7-0; Stratton gets a one-hitter
Photo credit: @SFGiants
By Joey Friedman
Sports Radio Service
In their first meeting of the season, the San Francisco Giants shutout the San Diego Padres by a score of 7-0 at Petco Park Thursday night on the backs of pitchers Chris Statton and Derek Law. Hunter Pence and Buster Posey would each collect two RBIs in the win. San Diego position players were held hitless tonight.
In the Giants’ half of the first, they mounted an attack with a Joe Panik walk, an Andrew McCutchen single, a Buster Posey walk, and an Evan Longoria fielder’s choice ground ball to San Diego shortstop Freddy Galvis on the first pitch which turned in a run as Longoria reached first when Galvis took the out at second in Posey. After Brandon Crawford walked to load the bases again, Hunter Pence pushed everybody up 90 feet with a broken-bat RBI bloop single to right.
San Diego’s sparkling defensive play came in the third inning when Gregor Blanco hit with runners on the corners, the Giants up 3-0 with one out and a 0-1 count. Blanco popped up a bunt in foul ground that held in the air just long enough for Padre catcher Austin Hedges to make a diving grab halfway to the backstop. He would throw to first to double off the runner Crawford and end the threat.
The only hit in the game for the Padres came from 34-year-old LHP Clayton Richard who pinch hit for starting pitcher Bryan Mitchell before Mitchell could get his first at-bat of the night. Through 289 career at-bats, Richard carried a .118 batting average. The line drive to right came off starting pitcher Chris Stratton of the Giants in the third inning.
The Giants’ next big inning came in the 6th when the Giants loaded the bases with two out. Andrew McCutchen grounded the ball to third baseman Christian Villanueva, who through the ball in the dirt to Gold Glove first baseman Eric Hosmer who could not dig it out. The ball bounced into the seats, sending McCutchen to second, scoring two. Before the inning was over, the next batter, Buster Posey, would hit a ball on the ground down the left field line, scoring two more, and sending Posey to second. The Giants would load the bases once again before Hunter Pence would fly out to right to end an inning in which the Giants scored four runs on four hits and an error, leaving three on base.
For the Giants, Chris Stratton would pitch seven innings of one-hit ball on 101 pitches. He walked three and struck out four. He would improve to a 1-1 record. Reliever Derek Law came in to finish the game in the eighth, going two innings and striking out a pair. No one could cross the plate tonight for San Diego.
Bryan Mitchell of the Padres got the tough loss after going for three innings of four-hit, five-walk, and two strikeout baseball. All three runs he allowed were earned. His record is now 0-2. Nice relieving appearances for Jordan Lyles and Robbie Erlin were belittled by the four unearned runs that Colten Brewer gave up due to the Villanueva error.
The Giants saw a multi-hit night from Longoria, Pence, and Blanco. Almost everyone who picked up a bat got a hit tonight with the exception of Brandon Belt (who went 0-2 with two walks), Nick Hundley (0-1 in a pinch-hitting role), and Chris Stratton (0-3).
What’s Next?
Ty Blach (1-1, 4.11 ERA) will be on the hill for the Giants in the second game of the series opposed by Tyson Ross (1-1, 5.25 ERA) of the Padres. They will be making their fourth and third starts, respectively at 7:10 pm PT tomorrow night.
I’m having a ball watching 11-year-old girls play basketball
Photo credit: @UAFindlayNews
By Jerry Feitelberg
As a young man many, many years ago, I never thought women would be playing basketball. When I was in college, the only sports played by the women were field hockey and archery. The thought of women playing basketball never entered my mind.
However, the world has changed over the last 50 or 60 years, and with the passage of Title IX, women have now become active in soccer, ice hockey, basketball, rowing, lacrosse, and baseball and softball. I remember women competing for Olympic medals in gymnastics, figure skating, skiing, track and field, and swimming.
In the past 20 years or so, women at the University of Tennessee, the University of Connecticut, and Stanford University have won NCAA championships. The Women’s rowing team at my alma mater, Bates College, won the Division III National championship in 2015. It was the first national championship for this college in any sport, and that included all the sports that the men competed in, too.
So all this brings me to my story. About two weeks ago, I was invited to see a game between Almaden Country Day School and the Los Altos Christian schools’ sixth-grade girls. These young women, none of them over five-feet-tall, played on a regulation 94-foot court and the basket was not lowered at all. It remained at 10-feet. The only adjustment made was that the free throw line was moved in about five feet, so that the girls could make the free throw from 10-feet instead of the normal 15-foot charity stripe,
There were two referees present and the time of the game was shortened to three 8-minute quarters of play. Also, it was running time. The coaches tried to give every girl on the team a chance to play. Each team wanted to win, but the coaches also made sure that the girls were having fun and that they learn how to be good sports and be gracious should they lose the game.
One has to remember that the girls are not going to set a screen, there would not be any pick and rolls or give and go as they do at the college and pro level. None of that stuff here.There would be no one-on-one or isolation. What the girls did was run and pass the ball and try to get off the shot. Some used the backboard to bank the ball in, and some made a basket getting the ball up high enough to go in without touching the rim. They were stealing the ball and trying to block shots. They were aggressive players and fouled their opponents.
My lovely companion’s granddaughter had a nice game as she made two baskets and had three rebounds as Almaden Country Day School skunked the Los Altos Christian Lions 25-0. After the game, the girls shook hands and gave hugs to their opponents and a good time was had by not only the girls but by their parents and grandparents.
Sports Radio Service 