Aces collapse in 2nd half, lose by 38 points to Liberty

The Aces trailed by only five points at halftime Sunday against the New York Liberty.

A quarter later, they trailed by 26. The deficit only grew from there in a 99-61 loss at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York, just their third defeat of the season.

“That’s a good, old-fashioned ass whooping,” said coach Becky Hammon, whose team scored 17 points in the second half.

The defeat snapped the Aces’ eight-game winning streak. It was the organization’s largest margin of defeat since moving to Las Vegas, topping a 36-point loss to the Connecticut Sun in May 2018.

“If we were plumbers, there’d be a lot of people getting fired for not doing their job,” Hammon said. “Luckily, we’re basketball players, so we get to play again in a couple days and hopefully fix it.”

Guard Jackie Young scored 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting for the Aces (24-3), and point guard Chelsea Gray had 15 points and six assists. Guard Kelsey Plum scored 12, but went 4 of 16 from the field.

Forward A’ja Wilson was hit in the head by an errant elbow from Liberty center Jonquel Jones and briefly left the game. She returned, but was held to nine points on 2-of-14 shooting.

“God, please don’t ever let me shoot like that again,” Wilson said.

Guard Sabrina Ionescu led the Liberty (22-6) with 31 points. Forward Breanna Stewart had 23 points, six rebounds, five assists, three steals and three blocks.

The Aces continue their road trip Tuesday against the Dallas Wings. The Liberty and Aces meet again Aug. 15 in the Commissioner’s Cup Final at Michelob Ultra Arena.

Here are three takeaways from the loss:

1. Ionescu torches Aces

Ionescu was unstoppable, hitting 12 of 19 shots and adding seven assists. She scored 23 of her 31 points by halftime. The Aces had limited her to seven points in a 98-81 win in June in Las Vegas.

Ionescu, who won the 3-point shooting contest during WNBA All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas, went 6 of 10 on 3s. The Liberty hit 17 of 38 3-pointers.

“Man, she was feeling it,” Gray said.

2. Rebounding woes

The Liberty outrebounded the Aces 48-24. They had 11 offensive rebounds, which they turned into 20 second-chance points. Jones had 14 rebounds and forward Betnijah Laney nine.

“Box out, do your job,” Hammon said. “They were up 14 on us at halftime, reboundingwise. They basically doubled it again, and that is completely on us.”

3. Third-quarter collapse

New York began the third quarter on a 7-0 run, forcing Hammon into a timeout less than three minutes after halftime.

It didn’t do much good for the Aces, who were outscored 30-9 in the third quarter. The Liberty shot 63.2 percent in the quarter and 55.6 percent on 3s. They assisted on 11 of their 12 field goals and held the Aces to 17.6 percent shooting.

Gray said it felt as if the Aces were chasing the game entering halftime. Hammon said her team was simply not prepared for the challenge.

“There’s a lot of things we did wrong,” Hammon said. “There’s a lot we can address, but it’s a collective thing. It wasn’t any one person for us, offensively or defensively. It was us as a group. We just didn’t do our jobs.”

Contact reporter Andy Yamashita at ayamashita@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ANYamashita on Twitter.