Aces end road trip with first Commissioner Cup victory

Another near comeback by the opponent was thwarted by the Las Vegas Aces as they picked up a second straight victory to close this three-game road trip.

Las Vegas beat Los Angeles for the second time in three meetings already this season, this time by a final score of 79-69 from Crypto.com Arena Tuesday, June 2.

“The winning is fun,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “But the women are the [most fun]. In going through the process with them and building that trust and that accountability in that. That foxhole mentality.”

In seven road games so far this year, the Aces have tallied six wins while the most recent also counted as the team’s first win in its first Commissioner Cup appearance of the season.

Overall, Las Vegas is 6-3 on the year as it prepares for its first homestand of the season. This season’s team has dropped each of its first two home showings to open the new campaign.

Back home for the Aces as they get ready for a quick turnaround matchup against the Golden State Valkyries Saturday, June 6. Tip-off is set for noon from the Michelob Ultra Arena.

A lead that was once double-digits was shaved down to seven points on an 8-0 run by the home team. Forward A’ja Wilson recorded her fifth block of the night on one end and followed it up with an and-one conversion on the other end to halt the spurt.

“I think the game has definitely slowed down for me,” she said. “Allowing myself to be slowed down in the mind [...] Now, I’m just trying to take the game possession by possession.”

It was Las Vegas’ defense for most of the night that led the team to its second consecutive victory. That was evident early as the Sparks went into the second quarter on eight straight misses from the field.

By the final buzzer, Los Angeles shot 31% from the floor in front of its home fans. That number included a 6-for-23 mark from three-point territory.

In Las Vegas’ last showing, Golden State connected on 16 made threes despite the loss.

“We cleaned up some things defensively,” Hammon said. “I was okay with our defensive effort tonight. I did not love our offense at times [...] It always about the details, it’s about who we want to be.”

Just before halftime, the Sparks used back-to-back made threes to ignite a 14-6 run to close the once 15-point gap to five. Coming out of halftime, the Aces answered with a 6-0 start before having it responded to via an 8-0 counter by their opponent.

Wilson polished off a double-double in that third quarter before finishing with 25 points and 15 rebounds in 34 minutes of action. As a team, Las Vegas gobbled up 44 rebounds while winning the rebounding margin by six.

Guard Chelsea Gray also posted a double-double with 12 points and a season-high 11 assists.

Fellow guard Jackie Young was an assist-shy of tallying a double-double of her own with 16 points on 7-of-17 shooting to go along with nine assists.

“In basketball, you’re going to go through some things,” Gray said. “Her’s just happened early in the season. We’d rather that than we’re [having this talk] in September. We have confidence in Jackie and she puts the work in.”

Guards Chennedy Carter (left leg) and Jewell Loyd (rest) sat out in addition to guard Dana Evans, who has missed all season so far with a lower left leg injury sustained while playing in the Unrivaled league during the offseason.

“Well I have three guards out right now,” Hammon said. “A’ja was more prepared [to play small forward] than she knew just because we run her off guard sets already.”

Reserve forward Kierstan Bell led all bench players with 22 minutes logged while also scoring six of the bench’s 11 points. The other five points were scored by fellow backup forward Cheyenne Parker-Tyus.