Aces celebrate wild win over Chicago in the playoff game Sunday. LVSportsBiz.com photo by Steve Rosenthal.

Aces Win Amazing Playoff Game In Las Vegas, 93-92, Before 7,981 At Thomas And Mack Center

By Cassandra Cousineau

LVSportsBiz.com

Photos by Steve Rosenthal

 

The Las Vegas Aces scored a heart-stopping 93-92 win over the Chicago Sky in the Aces’ first ever playoff game in Las Vegas thanks to what the WNBA is calling “the shot of the year.”

It was a spirited announced crowd of 7,981 at Thomas & Mack Center that watched the Aces’ Dearica Hamby win the game with a steal and 35-foot three-point shot with less than five seconds to go in the game.

MGM Resorts CEO Jim Murren after the Aces scored in the final seconds on a three-point shot to defeat the Chicago Sky.

“Welcome to the playoffs,” an emotional Aces coach Bill Laimbeer said after the game after had made an impassioned plea to locals in a letter published as an advertisement in the local Las Vegas newspaper to attend Sunday’s playoff game. The game was fast-paced and back-and-forth at Thomas & Mack, which hosted the playoff contest because the Aces’ usual home court — Mandalay Bay Events Center — was booked this weekend.

Dearica Hamby gets congrats from her teammates,

The Aces now move on to play the Washington Mystics and WNBA MVP Elena Delle Donne Tuesday on Washington’s home court in the best-of-5 WNBA semifinals.

MGM Resorts International owns the WNBA team and MGM Resorts CEO Jim Murren is a big fan who attended Sunday’s game.

MGM Resorts International CEO Jim Murren, far right.

The crowd was loud and among the biggest of the year for the Aces.

The last-second victory is already earning a spot in Las Vegas basketball folklore, made possible by a steal by Hamby with 13.4 seconds and then her virtual Hail Mary, 3-pointer. The team then held off Chicago for the remaining 4.3 seconds of the game.

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Alan Snel

Alan Snel brings decades of sports-business reporting experience to LVSportsBiz.com. Snel covered the business side of sports for the South Florida (Fort Lauderdale) Sun-Sentinel, the Tampa Tribune and Las Vegas Review-Journal. As a city hall beat reporter, Snel also covered stadium deals in Denver and Seattle. In 2000, Snel launched a sport-business website for FoxSports.com called FoxSportsBiz.com. After reporting sports-business for the RJ, Snel wrote hard-hitting stories on the Raiders stadium for the Desert Companion magazine in Las Vegas and The Nevada Independent. Snel is also one of the top bicycle advocates in the country.