Wild fourth quarter sees Aces outlast Mercury in Phoenix

Las Vegas forward gets up for her lone block in a narrow win over Phoenix on the road. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Aces

Entering a long road trip losers of six of their last nine games, the Las Vegas Aces captured perhaps their biggest win of the season in a big way.

Looking to avenge a six-point loss from two weeks ago, Las Vegas downed Phoenix, 84-81, from the PHX Arena Sunday, June 29. The win ended a six-game win streak for the Mercury.

“In my opinion they’re probably the hottest team in the league right now,” head coach Becky Hammon said. “They put a hurting on New York the other night. But holding that team to basically 21 [points] and under for three quarters is really hard to do so the attention to detail was there.”

With the win, the Aces improve to 8-8 overall this season as June draws to a close. The season-long five-game road trip continues Thursday, July 3 in Indiana with a meeting with the Fever.

“This is when I can’t just be the vocal leader,” forward A’ja Wilson said. “I have to show it. I have to remain calm so that my teammates can understand we’re good. We’re in a good situation even though the situation is unfamiliar to me.”

Wilson scored a bucket in the lane with just over 22 seconds left in the team’s tight three-point victory. That field goal put her team up, 83-80, as she finished with 26 points, 18 rebounds, seven assists coupled with a steal and a block.

Las Vegas’ win featured five lead changes in the final three minutes and 13 seconds. The fourth quarter opened with Phoenix going on a 7-0 run to trim the deficit to two points, forcing a timeout from the visitors along the way.

That run would eventually be stretched to 17-3. The fourth quarter flip came on the heels of the Mercury being held to 29% shooting in the third quarter.

Aces guard Aaliyah Nye is seen running back on defense during her career night. Photo Credit: Las Vegas Aces

The Aces gained control of the game in the second quarter after having to endure a very shaky first quarter. After taking an early lead, the team was met by an 11-0 run from their opponent before ultimately going down 10 points in the opening frame.

“I thought our defense did a great job just being disruptive early on,” Hammon said. “They did miss some open ones but so did we, that happens throughout the course of a game. We wanted to get a little bit of a different look on [forward Alyssa Thomas].”

Rookie guard Aaliyah Nye set several new career-highs in the win including 16 points and five made three-pointers. She accounted for 16 of the team’s 24 bench points.

Nye also drilled one of her two free throws with seven seconds left on the clock.

“She was good tonight,” Hammon said. “Every time she shoots I think it’s going in. [The Mercury] were really clogging the paint, I thought just bringing a lot of congestion on [forward Kiah Stokes].

“We actually ended up going small a little more than I wanted to.”

Starting guards Jackie Young and Jewell Loyd added 15 points and 10 points respectively. The duo combined to score 11 of Las Vegas’ final 16 points.