Aces close regular season home slate with second straight thumping of Sky

Las Vegas guard Jewell Loyd smiles during the team's win over Chicago inside the T-Mobile Arena. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Aces

It was a regular season home finale that won’t soon be forgotten in Las Vegas as the Aces put an exclamation point on its home slate of games.

Las Vegas beat Chicago for a second straight time to claim the regular season series, this time by a final score of 92-61 from the T-Mobile Arena Tuesday, Sept. 9. That win marked a 15th straight victory for the Aces.

While celebrating its regular season finale, Las Vegas closed the door on an undefeated three-game homestand. All three games took place at the T-Mobile Arena where the team closes the year with a 4-0 overall record in its second home building.

The Aces will conclude the regular season with a road game against the Los Angeles Sparks Thursday, Sept. 11 from the Crypto.com Arena. Then the team will look to build on its 29-14 overall record, which currently has the club second in the WNBA’s standings.

It was another big first quarter for the home team as Las Vegas went up by 16 points in the opening frame, largely on a 15-0 run. At halftime, the team sported a 53%-mark from the field while shooting 7-for-14 from three-point range.

“I didn’t really like our offense actually in the first half,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “It was popping and moving in the first quarter but the second quarter, I think [forward A’ja Wilson] took one shot. It’s not just about her shots, she needs to touch it [and] she wasn’t touching it enough.”

That first half was closed by a three-pointer from backup guard Jewell Loyd with just 12 seconds left on the clock. Not long before, Chicago had trimmed the once 16-point lead down to just four points.

The Aces’ three-point prowess had an uptick in the second half with four more made threes on seven attempts in the third quarter. Loyd hit back-to-back treys in the third quarter to reach 12 points on the night and 6,000 points for her career, becoming the 15th player in league history to accomplish the feat.

In addition, she reached 2,000 made field goals for her career as well on her way to 15 points which shared in the game-high.

Aces guard Jackie Young executes a crossover on Sky forward Michaela Onyenwere. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Aces

Guard Jackie Young drilled a three just after Loyd’s pair of longballs to force a timeout from the visitors with the lead the largest it had been to that point at 19 points. She joined Loyd with 15 points for a share in the game-high.

“Jackie just has the ball in her hands a lot more,” Hammon said. “She’s making great decisions, a lot more pick-and-roll opportunities this year for her and she’s proven to just be super efficient with it.”

Reserve guard Dana Evans joined in on the action with two fourth quarter three-pointers, each giving the team a new largest lead of the night at 25 and 28 respectively. She added 11 points off-the-bench to help her team win the bench point matchup, 41-20.

Las Vegas ultimately went up 33 points and 35 points on a three-pointer and layup from late entry into the game Megan Gustafson.

The entire Las Vegas roster huddles up ahead of the team's T-Mobile Arena contest against Chicago. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Aces

“We looked around before the game and we’re whole,” Loyd said. “For the first time all season, every locker is filled and we’re like, ‘This is our whole team.’ It’s great and so you look at the stat sheet and we want to play like that too.”

Three more starters hit double-figures including 13 points from forward NaLyssa Smith, 11 points from Wilson and 10 points from guard Chelsea Gray.

As a team, the Aces handed out 26 assists on 34 made field goals en route to the win. Along the way, the club shot 55% from the floor including 15 made threes on 29 three-point attempts.

Forward Cheyenne Parker-Tyus made her season debut after giving birth back on July 1st. She entered the game for the first time at the 2:23-mark of the first quarter after getting up off the bench and sprinting to the scorer’s table.

Parker-Tyus scored her first points of the season less than a minute later as she’d score eight points in eight minutes.

“It felt really good,” she said. “Felt really good. A lot of feels, honestly. Just putting on my jersey, being able to be in those huddles meant the world today.” 

Everybody in uniform played for Las Vegas while forward Kierstan Bell sat out with a lower right leg injury.