A’ja Wilson pours in 35 points to carry Aces past Sparks

A'ja Wilson scored 35 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, and the Las Vegas Aces shot a blistering 12-of-25 from 3-point range en route to a 96-81 home win over the Los Angeles Sparks on Friday.

Las Vegas (3-2) led by as many as 24 points in its highest-scoring performance early into the 2025 season, but needed a fourth-quarter surge to hold off Los Angeles.

The Sparks (2-5) went on an 11-0 run to cut the deficit to eight points with 4:08 remaining. The Aces went scoreless for almost four minutes during the Los Angeles burst, but back-to-back baskets from Jackie Young and a Wilson putback effectively snuffed out the comeback effort.

Wilson shot 12-of-18 from the floor in her season-high scoring effort, and further aided the offensive eruption with a game-high-matching six assists. Young provided an outside complement to Wilson's dominant interior scoring, finishing with 26 points on 11-of-22 shooting.

Young went 3-of-8 from 3-point range, while Chelsea Gray hit 4-of-7 from long range. Gray finished with 15 points.

Meanwhile on defense, Las Vegas held Los Angeles to just 7-of-24 from beyond the arc -- including limiting former Aces All-Star Kelsey Plum to just 1-of-7 on her 3-point attempts.

Plum finished with a team-high 17 points, but struggled to get going until the second half. She shot 6-of-19 from the floor overall in her return to Las Vegas.

Dearica Hamby and Azura Stevens each posted double-doubles in the loss, with Hamby going for 14 points and 10 rebounds. Stevens recorded 10 points and 10 rebounds. Hamby added six assists to match Wilson for a game high.

Odyssey Sims chipped in 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the floor for Los Angeles, and the bench trio of Emma Cannon, Liatu King and Julie Allemand all notched six points. The Sparks reserves outscored Las Vegas' backups 22-10, but Los Angeles could not overcome the outstanding performances from Wilson and Young.

--Field Level Media