UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) – A’Ja Wilson scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds and the defending champion Las Vegas Aces remained undefeated, defeating Connecticut 90-84 in a rematch of teams that played in last year’s WNBA Finals.
Jackie Young added 22 points for Vegas (7-0), taking a lead by as many as 19 and withstood a furious fourth-quarter comeback by Connecticut (6-2). Kelsey Bloom scored 17 points and Chelsea Gray added 14 for the Aces.
“The good thing is we played hard enough and got low enough towards the end of the fourth quarter to come out of here with a win,” said aces coach Becky Hammon.
Rebecca Allen scored 22 points for the Sun, hitting four of her six three-pointers in the fourth quarter.
Alyssa Thomas had her seventh double-double of the season, scoring 14 points and grabbing 11 rebounds for the Eastern Conference leader, who snapped a three-game winning streak. Breonna Jones added 15 points.
The Aces jumped out to an early 11-4 lead, took a 25-14 lead after the quarter and never fell behind.
A steal and layup from Candace Parker pushed the lead to the 19th at 46-27. Vegas led 48-31 at the half and 70-53 after three quarters.
“We have a history of slow starts,” Wilson said. “So for us, we knew we had to come in with the mentality of making sure we could take the first blow, but also be able to throw it at the same time. And I think we showed that.”
The score was 74-56 before Allen led the Sun on a 17-2 run in the fourth quarter to cut the lead to just three points.
But a layup and free throw by Young pushed the lead to 84-77 with 1:15 remaining and the Aces holding on.
“We kept running into them,” said Sun coach Stephanie White. “We played like basketball on the Connecticut Sun in the second half. Nobody wants to go out without winning a ball game, but I think we got some good momentum that we can build on.”
The Sun only shot 31% in the first half and made just 2 of 14 attempts from 3-point range. They finished 10 of 26 from behind the arc and shot 41% from the floor.
It was the first meeting between the two teams since the Aces beat the Sun in this arena 78-71 in Game 4 of the Finals last September to win the WNBA title.
Teams have a day off Wednesday before meeting again on the same floor on Thursday evening.
“We know every player in the league has to do this at some point,” Hammon said. “But obviously it’s hard to play such a good team, such a smart, seasoned team, such a veteran team back-to-back like that. But that’s what it is.”
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