The Aces Beat The Sky On A Crazy Game-Winning Halfcourt Shot

The Aces hosted the Chicago Sky in Las Vegas on Sunday afternoon in their second round, single elimination playoff game for the right to advance to the conference semifinals and face the top-seeded Washington Mystics.

Las Vegas fell behind early, but behind a monster performance from Liz Cambage, who finished with 23 points and 17 rebounds, the Aces found themselves leading late in the fourth quarter. Vegas then failed to score for a three-minute stretch late, allowing the Sky to erase a 90-85 deficit, taking a 92-90 lead with under 30 seconds to play thanks to an Astou Ndour corner three-pointer.

On the ensuing possession, A’ja Wilson dribbled the ball off her leg and out of bounds, meaning the Sky simply had to make some free throws to put the game out of reach. Or so we thought. After quickly giving their foul to give, the Aces lost track of Courtney Vandersloot, who dribbled away from the defense in the backcourt to burn off even more precious seconds. However, Vandersloot got caught on the sideline and decided to throw an ill-advised pass up the court, which was picked off by Dearica Hamby, who forgot how much time was left on the clock and put up a near halfcourt heave with just under seven seconds to play that somehow went in.

The Sky weren’t able to replicate the same look that gave them the lead on the final possession, as Ndour airballed a contested corner three at the buzzer and, somehow, the Aces survived and advanced to the semifinals where Elena Delle Donne and the Mystics await.