A’ja Wilson scored a season-high 35 points and collected 11 rebounds and four blocks to lead the Las Vegas Aces to a dominating 89-72 road win over the Los Angeles Sparks on Saturday night.
Dearica Hamby tallied 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting and also contributed eight rebounds and three steals as WNBA-best Las Vegas (11-2) won for the ninth time in the past 10 games. Kelsey Plum added 17 points and eight assists.
Nneka Ogwumike recorded 16 points and nine rebounds for Los Angeles (5-8), which played its first game since the firing of coach/general manager Derek Fisher on Tuesday. Fred Williams is serving as interim coach for the rest of the season.
Katie Lou Samuelson added 13 points and Jordin Canada had 10 points and eight assists for the Sparks.
Wilson made 13 of 23 field goal attempts while falling four points shy of her career-best point total, set in 2019.
Las Vegas standout Jackie Young (ankle) missed her second straight game.
Chelsea Gray added 10 points and seven assists for the Aces, who shot 48.5 percent from the field and made 7 of 24 shots from 3-point range.
Los Angeles connected on 36.6 percent of its shots, including 7 of 22 from behind the arc.
Las Vegas was already cruising before Wilson scored all the team’s points during a 9-1 run to push the advantage to 66-43 with 5:39 left in the third quarter. The lead reached 26 on Hamby’s 3-pointer 28 seconds later.
Wilson hit a jumper with 1:40 left in the third to give her 33 points for the game. The Aces led 78-54 entering the final stanza and cruised to the finish.
Wilson recorded 22 points and eight rebounds in the first half as the Aces held a 52-35 advantage.
The Sparks led 18-13 before Las Vegas scored the final 12 points of the first quarter to grab a 25-18 lead.
Plum’s 3-pointer made it 38-26 with 4:53 left in the half and the Aces expanded the lead to 17 at the break.
–Field Level Media