{"id":576867,"date":"2026-04-10T23:46:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T23:46:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/576867\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T23:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T23:46:08","slug":"las-vegas-aces-to-host-japan-national-team-in-april-26-preseason-exhibition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/576867\/","title":{"rendered":"Las Vegas Aces to host Japan National Team in April 26 preseason exhibition"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">LAS VEGAS (<a href=\"http:\/\/fox5vegas.com\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"http:\/\/fox5vegas.com\/\">FOX5<\/a>) \u2014 The Las Vegas Aces are adding an international matchup to their preseason schedule.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The team announced it will host the Japan Women\u2019s National Team in a preseason exhibition game Saturday, April 26 at Michelob ULTRA Arena. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m., and the game is presented by Las Vegas.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Tickets for the Japan exhibition and all 22 regular-season home games are on sale now.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">READ MORE: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fox5vegas.com\/2026\/04\/03\/aces-lose-aaliyah-nye-wnba-expansion-draft-aja-wilson-pledges-stay\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.fox5vegas.com\/2026\/04\/03\/aces-lose-aaliyah-nye-wnba-expansion-draft-aja-wilson-pledges-stay\/\">Aces lose Aaliyah Nye in WNBA expansion draft, A\u2019ja Wilson pledges to stay<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Aces gearing up for historic 30th season<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">One of four original WNBA franchises still in existence, the Aces will use the exhibition as part of preparations for the franchise\u2019s 30th season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Aces\u2019 2026 season officially tips off with their 2025 championship ring ceremony at T-Mobile Arena on May 9. The team said the first 7,500 fans at that opener will receive a \u201cThree of a Kind\u201d flag, replicating items seen at the team\u2019s third championship celebration.<\/p>\n<p>Third international opponent for the Aces<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Aces said this will be the third time the franchise has faced an international national team.<\/p>\n<p>May 11, 2024:\u00a0Hosted the\u00a0Puerto Rico National Team\u00a0at the University of South Carolina, winning\u00a0102-50\u00a0in A\u2019ja Wilson\u2019s homecoming.May 6, 2018:\u00a0Hosted the\u00a0China National Team\u00a0in Las Vegas, winning\u00a098-63.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Before relocating to Las Vegas (via San Antonio), the franchise \u2014 then known as the Utah Starzz \u2014 also hosted China on May 11, 2002 in West Valley City, Utah.<\/p>\n<p>About Japan<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Japan enters the matchup ranked No. 10 in the world and No. 3 in Asia, and recently secured a berth in the 2026 FIBA Women\u2019s Basketball World Cup during a qualifying tournament held March 11\u201317 in T\u00fcrkiye, the team said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Japan is coached by Corey Gaines, who led Phoenix to the 2009 WNBA championship. At the 2026 World Cup qualifying tournament, Mai Yamamoto earned an All-Star Five selection after leading Japan with 15.0 points per game, 1.2 steals per game, and the team\u2019s top efficiency rating (13.8), while also averaging 3.6 assists per game.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The Aces noted two players with WNBA experience \u2014 Rui Machida (Washington, 2022) and Ramu Tokashiki (Seattle, 2015\u20132017) \u2014 were also part of Japan\u2019s World Cup qualifying roster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Japan\u2019s roster for the April 26 exhibition will be announced at a later date.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Over the last five years, Japan has won Olympic silver (2020 Games played in 2021), gold at the 2021 FIBA Asia Cup, silver at the 2023 and 2025 Asia Cups, and finished 9th at the 2022 FIBA World Cup and 12th at the 2024 Olympics.<\/p>\n<p class=\"copyright |\">Copyright 2026 KVVU. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS (FOX5) \u2014 The Las Vegas Aces are adding an international matchup to their preseason schedule. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-576867","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}