WNBA Aces Preseason Game Has Feel Of Regular Season Match On UNLV Campus Sunday
By Alan Snel
LVSportsBiz.com
Only a preseason game in 3,000-seat Cox Pavilion next to Thomas & Mack Center?
Ha! This is Las Vegas. And the basketball franchise owned by MGM Resorts International was the second-year Aces team, which just acquired one of the WNBA’s most dominating players, debuted its number one draft pick and heard from a loud crowd of more than 1,000 fans.
And don’t forget birthday boy Aces coach Bill Laimbeer, the six-foot, 11-inch former “Bad Boy” who turned 62 Sunday and received a technical foul for chirping too much to the referees during a preseason game.
The Aces, loaded with number one picks and now the league’s 2018 MVP runner-up, 27-year-old Liz Campage, acquired in a trade from Dallas a few days ago, ended up losing, 79-75, to the Minnesota Lynx. Campage was hanging out with the Aces during the game, but did not play.
“We’re still learning how to win,” Laimbeer told the assembled sports media after the game on the UNLV campus.
But the game did feature the debut of 2019 number one draft pick Jackie Young from Notre Dame, who ran the court well and converted three fastbreak layups in the first period. There was also an intensity to the play you typically don’t see in a preseason game.
In their first season in Las Vegas in 2018, the former San Antonio-based franchise finished out of the playoffs in the 12-team WNBA. The re-branded Aces started 1-7 last season and finished ninth in the league, which has eight teams make the postseason after a 34-game regular season.
The Aces have high expectations for 2019 because newly-acquired Campage and the versatile six-foot Young join Aces All-Stars A’ja Wilson, the 2018 WNBA Rookie of the Year, and shooting guard Kayla McBride. Here’s Wilson after the game:
LVSportsBiz.com will be at a Monday media event when Campage is introduced. We will have more on the Aces tomorrow as the Aces prepare for their May 26 home-opener at Mandalay Bay Events Center. It’s a big season for the Aces and their arena because the WNBA All-Star Game is also in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay Events Center.
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