The Phoenix Mercury’s Brittany Griner (41) is double teamed by the Las Vegas Aces A’ja Wilson (22) and Kiah Stokes (41) at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas Wed Jul 7, 2021 (Las Vegas Review Journal photo)
Phoenix Upsets the Aces 99-90
By Barbara Mason
Wednesday evening the dominating Last Vegas Aces (14-5) took on the Phoenix Mercury (8-9). The Aces along with the Storm have been the talk of the town with opposing teams just trying to play catch-up in the standings. The Mercury are on a two-game losing streak and the Aces on the other hand have only lost one game of their last ten played.
In last Sunday’s game Las Vegas scored a season high and francise record with 118 points. In that game six players scored in double figures. The Aces have the best offensive rating in the league 107.9. They score an average of 91.8 points per game which is the best in the league. Defensively and offensively this team is on a roll and they have to feel like the best team in the WNBA.
The first quarter would end with a 7-0 Phoenix run leading the Aces 24-20. Jackie Young had the high score in the quarter for the Aces with 8 points. Brittney Griner had the high for Phoenix scoring 10 points.
Mid-way through the second quarter the Mercury had extended their lead to seven points leading 33-26. Late in the quarter the Aces really cleaned up their offense and erased an 8 point lead by Phoenix only to let the Mercury off the hook at the half. The score was 50-43 in favor of Phoenix and Brittney Griner had the high score with 21 points. Her team was shooting over 52% and giving Las Vegas all kinds of trouble.
After three quarters the Aces turned this game around taking the lead 63-58. Las Vegas had outscored the Mercury in the quarter 20-8.
Phoenix refused to go away and with just under two minutes left in the game they led 80-76. The Aces would need to keep their composure if they were going to win this game. It was crunch time for Las Vegas.
With 38 seconds left on the clock this game was tied at 82. The game remained tied and there would be five more minutes to play in overtime. A’ja Wilson was key keeping her team in the game.
The Aces had a tough start in overtime. The Phoenix took a six point lead all of them coming from Brittney Griner. Nine consecutive points for the Mercury and they really had the Aces on the ropes. Las Vegas couldn’t buy a basket in overtime. Phoenix continued to eat up the clock and with two minutes left Las Vegas was looking at their fifth loss of the season dropping them out of first place in the Western Conference.
Everything that could go wrong for the Aces did indeed go wrong in this overtime. Nothing went right for the team. They take on the Lynx on Friday hoping to get back on track. Tipoff is scheduled for Friday at 7:30.
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