Megan Gustafson scored a personal best 24 points and Tiffany Hayes added a season-high 21 as the Las Vegas Aces defeated the visiting Dallas Wings 98-84 in the final regular-season game for both teams.

The Aces (27-13), with four of their regular starters in street clothes on the bench, had a 15-point lead at halftime, built it to 20 after three quarters and sailed to victory. Dallas, playing mostly with bench players in the fourth quarter, closed in just nine points in the final period before falling.

The Aces knew before tipoff that they couldn’t improve from fourth place in the upcoming playoffs, leaving them with little to gain other than momentum heading into the postseason. Las Vegas will host fifth-place Seattle at home on Sunday and Tuesday in the first two games of the best-of-three series.

Both teams were left without key players on the bench, with Las Vegas without A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, Chelsey Gray and Jackie Young, while the Wings’ Arike Ogunbowale and Teaira McGowan did not play. McGowan’s absence was due to a one-game suspension for technical fouls.

Sydney Colson scored 13 points for Las Vegas, while Kierstan Bell had 12 off the bench and Alysha Clarke added 10 points.

Satou Sabally led all scorers with 25 points, with Jaelyn Brown adding a career-high 15 off the bench, Natasha Howard and Kalani Brown each scored 13 points and Maddy Siegrist scored 12 for Dallas (9-31). The Wings closed the season with nine straight losses.

The game was tied at 30 after one period before the Aces took control with a 12-0 run to start the second quarter, capped by a 3-pointer by Colson. Dallas fought back to make it 49-42 when Jaelyn Brown made a jumper with 3:52 left. But that seemed to reignite Las Vegas, which closed the half on an 11-3 spurt to take a 60-45 lead into halftime.

Sabally’s 17 points on 5-of-9 shooting led all scorers before halftime. Gustafson and Hayes led the Aces with 11 points apiece in the first half, while Clark and Colson added 10 apiece.

Dallas cut its deficit to within 10 points three times in the third quarter, but could get no closer. Las Vegas led 88-68 at the start of the final period.

–Field Level Media