The Las Vegas Aces (30-13, 1-0) were on the hunt to sweep Seattle (23-21, 0-1) from the playoffs on Tuesday night.
In the first quarter, both teams came out strong, trading the lead multiple times. At the 6:19 mark, the Storm led the Aces 10-7.
With 4:05 remaining in the first quarter, the Aces completed back-to-back field goals from A’ja Wilson to tie the game 13-13.
In the closing seconds of the first quarter, the Aces and Storm continued to trade leads. Going into the second quarter, the Aces held a slim 22-21 lead.
In the second quarter, both teams picked up the pace. Both teams made it the free-throw line five times. At the end of the first half, the Aces held a 45-44 lead over Seattle.
To start the second half, the Aces started to slowly put some distance between them and Seattle by taking a 10-point lead with 4:20 remaining in the third quarter. Las Vegas held its largest lead halfway through the quarter.
Jackie Young carried most of the load for the Aces in the third quarter. Young also reached a milestone but scoring her 500th career playoff point on her birthday.
With 4:03 left in the game, Skylar Diggins knocked down a monster three to cut into the Aces’ 79-73 lead.
With 31.0 seconds remaining, Seattle managed to come back to take a one-point lead over the Aces, 84-83.
Following the loss, Aces coach Becky Hammon said, “I mean that’s 9 free-throws, 15 turnovers, we didn’t execute.”
Seattle closed out the Aces in a close game, 86-83, snapping the Aces 17-game win streak to send the series back to Las Vegas for game 3.
The two teams will tip-off on Thursday, September 18.
