A'ja Wilson racked up 23 points and 10 rebounds, Jackie Young poured in 22 points and the Las Vegas Aces used stingy defense and then fended off a late burst from the Connecticut Sun to win 90-84 in Uncasville, Conn., on Tuesday night in a rematch of the 2022 WNBA Finals.
Las Vegas (7-0) remained the only unbeaten team in the WNBA by dealing the Sun (6-2), who hold the second-best record, just their second loss of the season.
Connecticut trailed by 19 points with nine minutes to play but used a furious rally to cut the gap to 76-73 with four minutes left on Rebecca Allen's 3-pointer.
Wilson scored on a drive and Kelsey Plum hit a three to help the Aces tame the momentum. Young's three-point play with 1:15 to go made the score 84-77.
Plum finished with 17 points and Chelsea Gray had 14 points for the Aces.
Allen poured in 22 points off the Connecticut bench, boosted by making 6 of 7 shot attempts from 3-point range. Brionna Jones had 15 points and 10 rebounds and Alyssa Thomas provided the Sun with 14 points and 11 boards. Natisha Hiedeman and Dijonai Carrington each added 11 points.
The Aces helped their cause by making 22 of 26 free-throw attempts.
The Aces held a 19-point lead in the third quarter before Allen and DeWanna Bonner hit back-to-back threes. But Las Vegas restored its margin by going up 70-51 in the final minute of the period.
Las Vegas led 48-31 at halftime, aided by 50-percent shooting from the field and holding the Sun to 31.2 percent.
The Aces had stressed defensive improvement going into the game and that tended to pay off except for the six-minute span in the fourth quarter.
Connecticut was 5-for-20 on 3-point attempts after three quarters, but sank 5 of 6 tries from deep in the fourth. Las Vegas was 4-for-15 on threes for the game.
The teams meet again Thursday night on the same court.
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