‘Take it on the chin’: Struggling Aces lose 2nd straight to Lynx

The Aces lost again to the Lynx on Friday, falling 87-74 at Target Center in Minneapolis.

Napheesa Collier dominated the matchup with 27 points and a career-high 18 rebounds for the Lynx (21-8), who also defeated the Aces 98-87 on Wednesday at Michelob Ultra Arena.

Collier, on her own, bested the entire Aces roster’s 17 boards. She had a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double before halftime.

A’ja Wilson had 24 points for the Aces (17-11). The next-highest scorers for the Aces were Jackie Young and Tiffany Hayes, who each added 12.

The Lynx are now 3-1 this season against the Aces, who have lost three of their four games since returning from the Olympic break.

The Aces continue their road trip against the Chicago Sky at 9 a.m. Sunday.

“I think we can really learn from this game. We learned from the last one,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “We got another one in another day and a half. So we’ll take some mental notes. We’ll take it on the chin. We didn’t have enough people playing well tonight.”

The first quarter illustrated the adjustments to which Hammon alluded. She shifted the starting lineup, substituting veteran guard Alysha Clark for center Kiah Stokes, and Clark was the first to score for the Aces, with a 3-pointer.

Kelsey Plum followed up by forcing a turnover on Courtney Williams, who was fresh off scoring a season-high 22 points against Plum’s defense Wednesday.

After Plum complained about the officials not penalizing the Lynx’s moving screens in their previous matchup, Collier was called for an offensive foul Friday in what seemed to be an answer to Plum’s frustrations.

By the first timeout, the Aces had a 13-8 lead. But in the last three minutes of this first quarter, the Lynx’s defense started to shine, forcing a shot clock violation as the Aces couldn’t set up an effective play.

From then, Minnesota went on a 10-0 run to take an 18-13 lead, and the game was tied at 18-18 at the end of the first period.

After trailing by as many as seven points in the second quarter, the Aces entered halftime down 40-39 thanks to a closing run featuring Wilson’s first free throws of the game and a 3-pointer from Plum.

Things started to fall apart for the Aces in the third quarter, as the Lynx got off to a 6-0 run.

The period turned into a battle between Wilson and the Lynx. The Aces only had 15 points in the third, and Wilson had 11 of them.

Collier continued to contribute for the Lynx, scoring seven of Minnesota’s 25 points in the period

But Wilson scored on four consecutive possessions to end the third quarter, including a three-point play. She had 20 points to end the third quarter, the only Aces player in double figures at that point.

Wilson credited a fan in the arena for her third-quarter spurt.

“This man was just talking to me, and I felt like he was just jawing off at the mouth,” she said. “I get it. It’s a lot of fun, but it was starting to test my gangster. … So I just had to show them that we might not win this game, but these battles, we’re going to try to dig them out.”

After the Aces ended the third quarter down 65-54, they went on a 9-0 run in the fourth quarter to shorten their deficit to four points, but it wasn’t enough.

“We did a lot of great things,” Wilson said. “The outcome and the result is not what we wanted, obviously. But if we can just continue to string little things together, I’m going to continue to just be for my teammates always, and then I always still bet on us no matter what.”

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