Aces stay hot, sweep Dallas on Wilson’s 26

For the second straight game, the Aces built a big lead only to watch it wither away in the final minutes.

But just like in Saturday’s win over the first-place Seattle Storm, Las Vegas managed to hold on Tuesday for a 9692 win over the Dallas Wings.

A’ja Wilson had 26 points and nine rebounds, and Dearica Hamby finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds for Las Vegas (11-3), which has won 10 of its past 11 games and finished the season sweep of Dallas.

Rookie Satou Sabally had 28 points and 11 rebounds for the Wings (5-10), who also received 21 points and five assists from Arike Ogunbowale, the league’s leading scorer.

“I was worried about the energy going into this game, but they brought the energy,” Aces coach Bill Laimbeer said. “A’ja did a nice performance tonight and really carried us most of the way, and Hamby had a very solid basketball game.”

Here’s three takeaways from the win:

Fourth-quarter woes

The Aces led by as many as 17 points in the third quarter and by 13 with less than four minutes to play.

The Wings never made an extended run, but they made three 3-pointers and all three free throws after being fouled on a long-range shot. The last of those 3-pointers came from Sabally with 2.8 seconds left and made the score 94-92, but Lindsay Allen then hit two free throws for the Aces.

“We let them back in the game, so that’s a little disturbing,” Laimbeer said. “We can’t let that happen. It’ll burn us one day. We get a lead, and we start throwing the ball over the gym, turnovers — bad turnovers — rushed shots. Hopefully we learn from this.”

One of the reasons the Aces have survived in the fourth quarter has been their play in the second. They outscored the Wings 29-19, the third straight game in which they’ve won the second quarter by at least 10.

Big night from the line

The Aces led the WNBA in freethrow attempts with 23.4 coming into the game, and they increased that number Tuesday by going 32-for-37 from the line.

Wilson was the main contributor with a 12-for-12 performance that tied the franchise record and the league high for the season for free throws without a miss. The Wings used a small lineup for much of the night, and the Aces took advantage by getting the ball in the paint.

“Any lineup they had in, we were told to get the ball in,” Hamby said. “But obviously we took advantage of it when they had their smaller lineup in.”