Wilson breaks WNBA scoring record as Aces down Caitlin Clark, Fever — PHOTOS
A’ja Wilson continued rewriting WNBA history in the Aces’ 86-75 win over the Indiana Fever on Wednesday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.
Then she fought back tears as she attempted to communicate how she couldn’t do it without her teammates.
The star forward led the Aces (23-13) with 27 points and 12 rebounds, breaking the league’s single-season scoring record with her 941st point in the final 30 seconds of the second quarter. Wilson ended the game with 956 points in her seventh pro season.
With four games left on the Aces’ regular-season schedule, Wilson is staring down another historic moment: becoming the first player in league history to reach 1,000 points in a year.
“It feels great,” Wilson said. “Now people can stop talking about it.”
Emotions took over as Wilson continued.
“My teammates are the ones — they’re the heartbeat, they keep me going,” she said. “I don’t get zero points, obviously, without them passing me the basketball. … The things we go through in our personal lives, we lock in for each other every single day, and that’s what you see on the court.”
The matchup marked Wilson’s return from an ankle injury that kept her out of the Aces’ loss to the New York Liberty on Sunday. She entered Wednesday’s game needing 11 points to break Jewell Loyd’s mark of 939 points set last season for the Seattle Storm.
The Aces’ bench notched another solid performance in the victory, scoring a combined 30 points. While Sydney Colson only contributed two points, she was a staggering and team-high +19 in the box score, recording four assists in 12 minutes.
Alysha Clark and Tiffany Hayes highlighted the reserves, recording 14 and 12 points, respectively.
Clark sat next to Wilson and also cried in Wednesday’s postgame news conference.
“I see the hours she puts in that nobody sees. She’s her hardest critic,” Clark said of Wilson. “That’s something that I think needs to be celebrated. When you have players of this caliber that are playing now, appreciate that. Because one day she’s not going to be here. She’s going to retire and go on and live her life, and people are going to marvel at what she’s done. Marvel at it now.”
Kelsey Mitchell had 24 points for the Fever (19-18). Star rookie Caitlin Clark added 16.
The Fever got off to a 7-0 run as the Aces faced shooting struggles to open the game.
They were 35 percent (7-for-20) from the field in the first quarter. But once Wilson opened the scoring for the Aces with four consecutive jumpers, they never trailed again.
Aces coach Becky Hammon garnered her fifth technical foul in the chippy contest, and now has the most technicals for a WNBA coach this season.
She’s tied with Caitlin Clark, Aces guard Kelsey Plum, Dallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale and Wings center Teaira McCowan for the fourth-most technical fouls in the league overall this year.
Hammon was incensed when Fever center Temi Fagbenle was called for a foul as Chelsea Gray scored, but the officials allowed Indiana coach Christie Sides time to decide whether to challenge the call and to make a substitution before Gray was allowed to shoot her free throw.
“They were trying to look on the replay to see if they should challenge it, and they were delaying the game, and it’s not right,” Hammon said. “That’s what I was upset about. That’s what I voiced to them. It’s not managing the game well, and so that’s what I was letting him hear, and I fully deserved a tech.”
The Aces play at the Fever again at 4:30 p.m. Friday.
Contact Callie Lawson-Freeman at [email protected]. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.
