Tag: Seattle Storm

Aces Lose to Storm 88-78; Vegas’ third loss in four games

By Barbara Mason

Wednesday night the Las Vegas Aces (14-5) took on the Seattle Storm (12-7) at Climate Pledge Arena home of the Storm in Seattle. The Aces won their last game, a close one, to the LA Sparks 79-73 Monday night. The Aces in turn lost to the Storm 88-78 a ten point disappointment and the Aces third loss in their last four games.

The Storm are currently in second place in the Western Conference trailing the first place Aces.

The Aces won the first quarter 27-23 in a closely contested game. The Storm would pull to within three points at the half. Seattle won the second quarter by the slim margin of 21-20. The Aces led at the half 47-44. A’Ja Wilson pulled out all the stops in the first half the only Ace in double digits.

After three quarters the Storm had taken the lead 64-62 winning the quarter 20-15. The Aces had a strong fourth quarter finish in their last game and needed to finish strong in this one.

With four minutes left in the game, the score was tied at 72 and it was the Storm that finished the game. They hoped for a fourth quarter finish but that didn’t happen for Las Vegas and they dropped their third game in four outings. The ten point win was in favor of the Storm.

The Storm had a tremendous game from Jewell Loyd with 24 points.

The high score for the Aces was A’JA Wilson with yet another outstanding game. She finished with 17 points and 16 rebounds. Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray all shot double digits.

Las Vegas will be back on the court in Minnesota taking on the Lynx Friday night. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:00 PM PT.

Las Vegas Aces’ Liz Cambage (8) takes it to the hoop right between Seattle Storm’s Jewell Loyd (24) and Mercedes Russell (2) at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Sun Jun 27, 2021 (AP News photo)

Las Vegas Wins Epic Battle Over Seattle 95-92

By Barbara Mason

Sunday afternoon the two powerhouses of the WNBA met in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Presently the Seattle Storm have the best record in the WNBA at 12-3 and the Aces have the second best at 10-4. The game promise to be a battle down to the final buzzer.

Back on May 15th the Aces lost to the Storm 97-83 although three days later they settled the score winning 96-80. Could this be the WNBA Finals preview? With the level these two teams are playing at we could have another Storm vs Aces matchup.

Last season these two teams met in the final with Seattle coming out on top winning the first three games of the finals; claiming their fourth title in franchise history. This would be the final meeting of these two teams in the regular season.

Early on the Storm lived up to their outstanding record outscoring the Aces in the first quarter 21-16. The second quarter was closely contested with each team shooting 21 points. The half-time score was 42-37.

The consistent play of the Storm was a major factor in the first half. Breanna Stewart finished the half with 12 points. For the Aces it was A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young each with 8 points in the first two quarters.

The Storm lit up the third quarter with 3-pointers and steals outscoring the Aces by a narrow margin 23-21. With one quarter in the game, the Storm led by the score of 65-58. The Aces got within two points of the Storm but were unable take the lead in the second half.

Las Vegas would lean heavily on A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young to get past the Storm in the final quarter. Turnovers had hurt Las Vegas at times in this game and they desperately needed to clean that up.

The Storms Breanna Stewart was relentless in the fourth quarter shooting three-pointers at will. With 5:42 left in the game the Aces took their first lead of the game 75-74. The final minutes of the game saw both teams trade leads and with 1:07 left in the game Las Vegas had a slim two-point lead 84-82. There were five lead changes in the final four minutes of play.

The clock would expire with the teams tied at 84 and would go into overtime. With 26.4 seconds left in overtime the Aces had a 91-90 lead. After trailing for most of the game Las Vegas pulled out the win 95-92 in an epic game.

After a tough game losing to Minnesota the Aces fought through fatigue to win this one. A’ja Wilson came away with 22 points and Chelsea Gray with 21 points as well as the game winner. Off the bench for the Aces Kelsey Plum had 15 points. The Storms Breanna Stewart had had 35 points for the game.

Next up for the Aces will be the Sparks this Wednesday night. Tipoff is slated for 7:30.