Defending champion Liberty pulls away from Aces in Opper

Natasha Cloud scored 22 points with a match-height nine assists, six rebounds, three steals and two blocks in her Liberty debut in New York, as defending WNBA champions scored a 92-78 victory over the visiting Las Vegas on Saturday afternoon. Breanna Stewart had 25 points and eight rebounds for the Liberty, while Jonquel Jones added 17 points and 10 rebounds. It was the fifth live season of New York. Liberty Guard Sabrina IonScu was held up to eight points at 3-for-12 shooting, including 0-for-5 from Deep. New York, who shot 48.6 percent of the floor, had an advantage of 56-32 on points in the paint. Las Vegas was held up to 34.1 percent shooting. Aces forward A’ja Wilson, the ruling WNBA MVP, had games with 31 points and 16 rebounds in the season opener for both teams. Jackie Young added 16 points for Las Vegas. Wilson scored 11 points in the first quarter while helping Las Vegas get a 20-19 lead. In the second quarter, New York compiled a 12-3 run, as the Aces were from the floor during that team 1 of the 12. New York led 47-33 at halftime after Stewart’s 3-pointer was swept away on video review after it was decided to come to the buzzer. Stewart and Wilson each had 13 points to lead all first half. Cloud had 10 points. Las Vegas won the third quarter and closed his deficit to 63-58. Wilson had 11 points in third place, and Young had nine points on 3-by-5 ​​shooting of deep. Early in fourth place, Las Vegas cut the deficit to two points before Cloud made two straight three-point play setup to stretch New York’s lead to 72-64 with 6:16 over and the Aces never recovered. New York is now leading its all-time series against Las Vegas 33-32. New York also knocked the Aces out of the play -off game last year in the semi -finals of the league. -Media on the field level