{"id":154302,"date":"2025-09-19T06:10:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-19T06:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/154302\/"},"modified":"2025-09-19T06:10:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-19T06:10:11","slug":"jackie-youngs-clutch-shot-aja-wilsons-dominance-carry-aces-past-storm-into-wnba-semis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/154302\/","title":{"rendered":"Jackie Young\u2019s clutch shot, A\u2019ja Wilson\u2019s dominance carry Aces past Storm, into WNBA semis"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>For the seventh season in a row, the Las Vegas Aces are headed to the WNBA semifinals.<\/p>\n<p>A streak that began with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ez3jDERjyW8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Hamby Heave in 2019<\/a> had another furious finish Thursday night. There were two ties and four lead changes in the final three minutes, and it took a Jackie Young putback with 12.4 seconds left \u2014 when the Storm had three bigs on the floor \u2014 for the Aces to escape with a 74-73 win and a trip to the next round.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">JACKIE YOUNG PUTBACK FOR THE LEAD.<\/p>\n<p>Aces get the stop on the other end to advance to the semi-finals!<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/uAjCD0aVuw\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/uAjCD0aVuw<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Underdog WNBA (@UnderdogWNBA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/UnderdogWNBA\/status\/1968885421149934005?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">September 19, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Storm put the ball in Erica Wheeler\u2019s hands on the final play after the veteran guard spurred the Game 2 comeback and gave Seattle the lead on the previous possession. Her encore didn\u2019t go through, however, and the Storm\u2019s season ends in the first round for the second straight season, both defeats coming at the hands of Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<p>The Aces advance to play the Indiana Fever, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/6643091\/2025\/09\/18\/fever-dream-wnba-playoffs\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">also had a dramatic victory over Atlanta<\/a> earlier Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Las Vegas ended the regular season on a 16-game winning streak, but needed all three games to beat Seattle in a hard-fought series in which the home team won all three games. The Aces will have homecourt advantage in the semifinal series, which tips off Sunday at 12 p.m. PT in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody\u2019s super excited about tonight, which I am too,\u201d coach Becky Hammon said, \u201cbut I gotta get our hard hats on and get these guys prepped and ready for what\u2019s coming next.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Although Young had the game-winner, Las Vegas advanced because of the individual dominance of A\u2019ja Wilson. Seattle elected to mostly defend her in single coverage and stay home on the Aces\u2019 shooters, who combined to make only three 3-pointers. But that meant the reigning MVP erupted for 38 points on 14-of-26 shooting, to go along with three steals and two blocks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe play calling didn\u2019t matter,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cA\u2019ja Wilson just took over the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wilson missed her last two shot attempts of the day, but even with only one defender glued to her, the Storm couldn\u2019t corral the most important offensive rebound of the game, which went to Young. Las Vegas had two second-chance points all night, and they couldn\u2019t have been more perfectly timed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\">(Photo of Las Vegas\u2019 A\u2019ja Wilson celebrating during Thursday\u2019s win: Candice Ward \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For the seventh season in a row, the Las Vegas Aces are headed to the WNBA semifinals. A&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154303,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,3460,1611,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-154302","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-las-vegas-aces","11":"tag-seattle-storm","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154302","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154302"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154302\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154302"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154302"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154302"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}