On Oct. 18, the Las Vegas Aces made history by beating the New York Liberty 70-69 in Game four of the best-of-five series to win their second consecutive WNBA championship. This is the first time in 20 years and second time in history that a WNBA team has won back-to-back titles.
The Liberty started off as the WNBA’s superteam coming into the playoffs with a 32-8 regular season record, the most wins in WNBA history, but that ended in shock for the WNBA world. Even without players like Kiah Stokes and Chelsea Gray, the Aces still pulled off the win, coming back from a 10-point deficit at the end of the first quarter. At the last second of the game, Liberty’s star guard Courtney Vandersloot’s three-point shot was a miss to hand Liberty the loss.
“I got the ball deep, late,” Vandersloot said. “Just trying to get it up on the rim, hoping for it to go in or an offensive rebound. Just didn’t have enough time.”
Aces forward A’ja Wilson was named Finals MVP, as she led the Aces with 24 points and 16 rebounds. She was followed by Jackie Young who scored 16 points, and Cayla George who scored 11 points. The leading scorer of the Liberty was Vandersloot who scored 19 points and had seven rebounds.
Aces coach Becky Hammon and her team were willing to leave it all out on the court to win this game. They were very physical from the start, leaving Liberty star player and regular-season MVP Jonquel Jones finishing 3-for-17 in shooting.
The Aces had a gameplan being the underdogs in this situation, and they executed perfectly.
