Seattle Storm beat Las Vegas Aces in Game 1 thanks to 50 points from Jewell Loyd and

• Jewell Loyd scored 26 points, including Seattle’s last six.
• The Storm take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series.
• A record crowd of 9,944 watched the game in Las Vegas.

The Seattle Storm is the lowest seed left in the WNBA playoffs. They came into the WNBA semifinals against the top-seeded Las Vegas Aces hoping to win at least one of the first two road games.

Jewell Loyd scored 26 points, including Seattle’s last six, and the Storm beat the Aces 76-73 on Sunday to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series in front of a Las Vegas playoff record crowd of 9,944.

With 1:16 left, Loyd made a free throw that gave the Storm the lead. With 34 seconds left, he made a jumper that gave the Storm a three-point lead. However, the Storm held on to win. In the fourth quarter, she scored 10 of Seattle’s 16 points.

“It wasn’t just me; it was a team effort for sure,” Loyd said. “It helps when you have really good teammates … you believe in them; they believe in you. That’s the biggest thing for us, is that each of us have to stay confident in what we do and what we can bring to the team. That’s been the key for us.”

The fourth-seeded Storm was led by MVP Breanna Stewart, who scored 24 points and grabbed six rebounds. Tina Charles added 13 points and a franchise playoff record 18 rebounds.

“We knew that this was going to be tough. These games against Vegas have been tough all regular season and previous seasons, and we have a lot of respect for their players and what they do,” Stewart said. “We knew that coming here to their home court, we wanted to obviously try to steal one, we wanted to get one and get our momentum going in the right direction.”

The Aces got 21 points from Chelsea Gray. Kelsey Plum added 20 points, but with 2.9 seconds left, she missed a three-point shot that would have tied the game.

Jackie Young scored 11 points in the end, but Aces star A’ja Wilson was only able to score 8 points on 3 of 10 shots.

Seattle was in charge for most of the game. They had a 12-point lead at halftime and led for the first 3 and a half quarters.

When veteran guard Riquna Williams hit a three-pointer from the corner with 6:09 left in the fourth quarter, it made the score 65-64 and gave Las Vegas its first lead of the game.

The Storm went on the attack right away, and by the middle of the first quarter, they had a 15-4 lead. Five different players for Seattle scored, including Ezi Magbegor, who scored four points after coming off the bench.

Las Vegas had trouble getting into a rhythm, and their pop-and-shoot strategy only got them to make 5 of 18 shots (27.8%) in the first quarter. After one, the Storm led 26–15, and neither Wilson nor Plum scored a point.

“I thought we played tight, especially in the first quarter,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “We played like the world was on our shoulders.”

The Aces fought back by playing better defense and getting to the basket much more easily. This helped them get back into the game.

The Aces went on a 12–4 run, led by Wilson, to cut Seattle’s lead to 30–27. Stewart took over from there. She scored nine of her team’s points during a 13–9 run that ended the quarter and gave the Storm a 43–36 lead at halftime.

Charles broke a record, and retiring player Sue Bird had 12 assists and no turnovers. Her last assist gave her 342 in the playoffs, which is a WNBA record. In 82 games, Lindsay Whalen hit 341 home runs. In 57, Bird beat the record.

Taking a page from the Aces’ playbook, the Storm scored more fast-break points than Las Vegas, 16 to 0. Seattle also won by a score of 5-0 in second-chance points.

The stars showed up for the first game of the series, along with Aces owner Mark Davis and Raiders tight end Darren Waller, who have been regulars at home games all season. Ann Meyers Drysdale, who is in the women’s basketball Hall of Fame, was also there, as were Raiders coach Josh McDaniels, Los Angeles Clippers coach Ty Lue, Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard, UFC president Dana White, Golden Knights goalie Logan Thompson, and Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak.

Wednesday in Las Vegas is Game 2 between the Storm and the Aces.

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