Kelsey Plum scored 12 of her season-high 34 points in the fourth quarter as the Las Vegas Aces rode a dominant final period to their fifth consecutive win, an 88-69 defeat of the visiting Indiana Fever on Tuesday.
Las Vegas (11-6) led most of the night, but an Indiana side playing the finale of a five-game road swing stayed within a single-digit margin of the reigning WNBA champion Aces for the better part of three quarters.
That changed in the fourth when Plum set the tone, knocking down one of her six made 3-pointers on 11 attempts for the game just 15 seconds in the quarter. Plum scored the first eight points of the period, and Las Vegas went on an overall run of 12-0 that lasted more than four minutes.
The burst pushed a six-point lead to 18, and the Fever (8-13) never recovered. Indiana finished 2-3 on its trip.
The WNBA’s leading scorer, A’ja Wilson, added 28 points and nine rebounds for the Aces. Wilson also limited the Fever’s interior scoring opportunities with five blocked shots.
Las Vegas’ Jackie Young recorded 15 points and 10 assists, and Kiah Stokes grabbed a team-high 12 rebounds.
NaLyssa Smith snared a game-high 14 rebounds for Indiana but scored only five points on 2-of-7 shooting from the floor. The Fever struggled to 36.4 percent field-goal shooting to the Aces’ 45.1 percent, and Indiana went 6-for-26 (23.1 percent) from beyond the 3-point arc to Las Vegas’ 9-for-25 (36 percent).
Kelsey Mitchell accounted for all but one of Indiana’s made 3-point attempts, going 5-for-10 en route to a team-high 23 points.
Fever rookie Caitlin Clark shot just 1-for-7 from long range and 4-for-12 overall. Her 13-point, 11-assist effort marked her third double-double in the past four games, however.
Aliyah Boston added 18 points and 11 rebounds in the loss.
–Field Level Media