The duo of A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young continues to make history by becoming the first to achieve ten repeats of iconic scoring. Playing against the New York Liberty on July 31, both veterans combined for 62 points, making it the tenth time each has scored 25+ points in the same game. They are the first duo in WNBA history to achieve this feat.
Watch What’s Trending Now!
Reigning WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson scored 33 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists, shooting 50% from the field, and Jackie Young scored 29 points, making seven of her 11 field goal attempts, while logging two rebounds and nine assists. espnW posted about this feat on their X feed.
The Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas witnessed end-to-end action as Breanna Stewart tried everything she could to keep Liberty in the game. She had 26 points and 11 rebounds on the night, while Pauline Astier added 19 points for the Liberty and Sabrina Ionescu had 15. It was not WNBA All-Star MVP Jonquel Jones’ night as she finished with just eight points on 2-for-11 shooting.
A’ja Wilson’s 33 points led the Aces to their first win over Liberty this season, who were on a three-game winning streak before this matchup. Wilson and Young have been putting in very productive games on the hardwood recently. They even combined for 50 points last week during a victory over the Toronto Tempo.
Wilson, drafted back in 2018 by the Aces, is showing no signs of slowing down. The former South Carolina Gamecock star is averaging 26.4 points, 9.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.6 steals per game this season. She remains the de facto two-way anchor of this Aces team, combining high-efficiency shooting with solid defensive coverage, which can be seen from her 53.3% field goal percentage and her team-leading 2.0 blocks per game.
Jackie Young entered the Aces a year after Wilson as the first overall pick in 2019. Young has since then, along with Wilson, formed an integral scoring duo and has helped lead the Aces to three league titles (2022, 2023 and 2025). Young’s prowess cannot be understated, as she is a five-time All-Star. She is averaging 17.5 points, 4.2 rebounds, 6.7 assists and 1.0 steals per game this season, and has the highest assist-to-turnover ratio on the Aces team, at 3.1.
While Wilson and Young’s incredible production brought home the 104-99 win for the Aces, an incident in the last few minutes of the game dominated the narrative.
The game witnessed a controversial call in the dying moments
A controversial no-call in the dying seconds became the talking point of the Liberty’s loss. Liberty forward Breanna Stewart insisted that it was an error by the on-court officials.
The sequence unfolded right in front of Stewart with 17.9 seconds left in the fourth quarter, and it was pure chaos. A’ja Wilson lost control of the ball, watched it sail out of bounds, and the whole arena was stunned by the on-court decision of an Aces ball.
Stewart’s arm was out but never touched the ball. New York had already used its coach’s challenge earlier, so there was no way to go for a review. With the Aces just three points ahead of the Liberty, the call going Stewart and Co.’s could’ve been significant.
The loss dampened the mood for Liberty’s Stewart, who achieved a historic milestone of her own, as she entered the top 10 on the WNBA’s career scoring list. She now has 6,588 points and moved past Candace Parker, who has 6,574 career points. Incidentally, Parker was on live commentary when Stewart achieved this historic feat.
The Aces will hope that the duo of Wilson and Young can keep up their performances this season, as they look to defend their title and avoid slip-ups like the close 1-point loss against the Chicago Sky on Saturday.