Aces start strong, hold off Storm for 2nd straight win

A'ja Wilson scored 19 points and collected seven rebounds to help the visiting Las Vegas Aces top the Seattle Storm 75-70 on Sunday night.

Jackie Young added 12 points while Chelsea Gray, Jewell Loyd and Aaliyah Nye chipped in with 10 apiece as Las Vegas (4-2) won its second straight. The Aces have now beaten Seattle two times on the road in a span of seven days.

Gabby Williams poured in 20 points for Seattle (3-4), which has lost three in a row and hasn't beaten Las Vegas twice in a season in seven years. Skylar Diggins finished with 11 points in the first game of the Commissioner's Cup for both teams.

The Storm trailed by as many as 17 but were within 73-70 with 13 seconds to go and with a chance to tie. But a midrange shot by Dominique Malonga was off the mark, and Loyd made two free throws on the other end with six seconds to play to seal the deal.

Las Vegas led 44-32 at the half, but the Storm battled back. Williams got the Seattle deficit under 10 when she buried a shot from the outside with 8:28 to go in the third, closing the gap to 44-35.

Diggins then scored five straight points, including on an and-one layup that brought the Storm to within 44-40 with 6:05 left in the quarter.

The Aces didn't get their first points of the second half until Loyd drove into the lane and scored with 4:56 remaining.

Five straight points by Nye to close the quarter gave Las Vegas a 61-47 lead going to the fourth.

Malonga scored the first eight points of the final period for Seattle, helping the Storm get within 66-55 with 6:12 to play.

Seattle got as close as 69-60 with four minutes left in the game after a layup by Erica Wheeler and was down just 73-68 with 1:39 left after Wheeler drilled an open 3-pointer.

The Storm won last week's meeting 102-82, but Las Vegas set the tone early this time, using a 10-0 run highlighted by Young's 3-pointer that made it 12-5 with 6:57 left in the opening quarter.

Young was huge during the opening period, scoring seven points, while Dana Evans scored inside and hit the ensuing free throw after drawing a foul to extend the Aces' lead to 27-17 heading into the second. Eight first-quarter turnovers didn't help the Storm's cause.

A 3-pointer by Evans with 8:56 left in the half stretched the Las Vegas advantage to 30-17.

Williams, who made her first four baskets of the game, drilled a shot from distance with 5:03 left in the half to cut the Aces' lead to 35-25.

Williams later made her third 3-pointer of the day, trimming Seattle's deficit to 38-30 at the 3:23 mark, but the Aces went to halftime with a double-digit cushion.

--Field Level Media