A’ja Wilson recorded 26 points, 11 rebounds and four blocked shots and the Las Vegas Aces exacted revenge against the visiting Washington Mystics with an 84-75 victory on Thursday night.
Chelsea Gray added 21 points as the Aces (31-6) snapped a two-game slide and avenged Saturday’s 78-62 road loss to Washington. Wilson made 10 of 14 field-goal attempts on Thursday after having just 14 points on 4-of-12 shooting on Saturday.
Kelsey Plum registered 12 points and 10 assists for Las Vegas, which holds a two-game lead over the New York Liberty in the battle for the No. 1 seed in the playoffs. The Aces have three games remaining and New York has five.
Elena Delle Donne scored 17 points and Brittney Sykes added 16 for the Mystics (17-19), who had a two-game winning streak snapped and sit in a three-way tie for fifth place with the Atlanta Dream and Minnesota Lynx. Natasha Cloud added 12 points for Washington, which connected on 39.4 percent of its shots, including 6 of 21 from behind the arc.
Las Vegas shot 46.8 percent from the field and made 10 of 28 from 3-point range.
Washington scored the first six points of the final quarter and took a 66-64 lead on Delle Donne’s basket with 8:28 remaining.
Gray and Plum responded with layups to push the Aces back into the lead and Alysha Clark followed with a 3-pointer to give Las Vegas a 71-66 advantage with 7:02 left. Plum made a technical foul free throw 70 seconds later to cap the 8-0 burst.
Gray later scored four points in a span of 31 seconds to give Las Vegas an 80-71 advantage with 1:09 left en route to wrapping up the triumph.
Wilson scored 14 points on 6-of-7 shooting in the first quarter as Las Vegas took a 24-14 lead.
Wilson had 19 at halftime as the Aces held a 40-30 lead.
The Mystics got moving in the third quarter by scoring 29 points on 11-of-19 shooting (57.9 percent). Washington scored 19 of 27 points in one stretch to turn a 10-point deficit into a 54-53 lead with 2:15 left in the period.
The Aces led 64-59 entering the final quarter.
–Field Level Media