‘Resilient group’: With Wilson out, Aces’ rally falls short vs. Liberty

The Aces lost to the New York Liberty on Sunday in an intense game that went down to the wire — an unexpected result after MVP favorite A’ja Wilson was seen at Barclays Center wearing a walking boot.

The 75-71 defeat was the Aces’ first game without Wilson since August 3, 2019. After trailing by 20 points in the third quarter, they rallied to take a 71-70 lead with under two minutes to play before the Liberty prevailed.

“We’re a resilient group. We know how to take a hit,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “I give my team a lot of credit for their fight, sticking together when it got hard, when it got ugly.”

Kelsey Plum led the Aces (22-13) with 25 points and six assists. Jackie Young added 12 points and three assists, while Alysha Clark recorded 11 points and six rebounds.

Wilson was ruled out with a lower right leg injury, the team said, and she arrived to the game with a walking boot. Hammon said the boot was “very precautionary,” and medical imaging of Wilson’s injury cleared her of long-term concerns.

The two-time league MVP will be re-evaluated before the team’s next game at the Indiana Fever at 4 p.m. Wednesday.

Breanna Stewart bolstered the WNBA-leading Liberty (29-6) with 21 points and 11 rebounds.

Here are three takeaways from the loss, which snapped the Aces’ four-game winning streak and completed a three-game regular-season sweep by the Liberty:

1. Frustrated

Plum was more blunt than Hammon, saying that there are “no moral victories” and expressing frustration with herself for missing two open opportunities to score in crunch time.

But Plum and Hammon were both vocal about how the game was officiated, especially in the final quarter. Plum used the word “assaulted” to describe late fouls against Young and Tiffany Hayes.

Hayes snagged a defensive rebound as the Aces trailed 73-71 with 19 seconds remaining. After a timeout, Young drove to the basket and appeared to be fouled by Stewart. The referees ruled it a block, which allowed Jonquel Jones to grab the ball. With only two seconds left, Young was forced to foul, and Jones sealed the game by making both of her shots.

Hammon noted that the Aces only got 10 free-throw attempts in the game, as many as the Liberty had in the first half.

Plum was even more blunt when asked if Sunday’s game reminded her of the 2023 WNBA Finals, as it was the Aces’ first game in New York since winning the championship against the Liberty.

“I’ve had a lot of questions today about last year, and to be honest, we’re so past that,” Plum said. “We’re not living in the past glory days.”

When asked the same question, Hammon said that “everybody knows these two teams aren’t particularly fond of each other.”

She added that while there’s mutual respect between the teams, the disparity between foul calls is “not right.”

2. Bench shines

Hammon went deep in her bench Sunday.

She gave center Queen Egbo, whom the Aces signed to a seven-day contract Monday, a minute of playing time in the second quarter. Hammon then turned to everyone else besides Kierstan Bell as the Liberty’s lead expanded late in the third quarter.

The Aces went on a 25-6 run from the end of the third quarter until the final two minutes of the game. Sydney Colson was a vital spark during that run, recording two steals, a block and five of her eight points in five fourth-quarter minutes. Her 3-pointer at the 1:54 mark gave the Aces a 71-70 advantage for their first lead since the first quarter.

Hayes finished with seven points and three rebounds.

“Our bench coming in, the ball moved and good things happened,” Hammon said. “They got stops, gave us a chance to crawl back in there and stick our nose in where probably people didn’t think it was going to be today.”

3. Missing Wilson

Without Wilson’s size, the Aces saw success prioritizing scoring from the perimeter early, scoring three straight 3-pointers to start on a 9-2 run. They were up to six 3-pointers midway through the first quarter, while the Liberty didn’t connect from deep until the last three minutes of the period.

But the Aces failed to record a single offensive rebound in the first half and were limited to nine points in the second quarter. In total, they were outscored in the paint 36-16.

Contact Callie Lawson-Freeman at clawsonfreeman@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.