The Las Vegas Aces edged past the New York Liberty as A’ja Wilson and Jackie Young combined for 62 points to help the Aces beat the Liberty 104-99 on
Friday. However, a controversial no-call in the dying seconds became the talking point of the Liberty’s loss. Breanna Stewart, who kept her team competitive till the end, insisted that it was an error by the on-court officials.

“Yeah, I did. So did A’ja. She was walking back to halfcourt,” Stewart said as per New York Post’s Madeline Kenney.

With the Aces just three points ahead of the Liberty, the call going Stewart and Co.’s could’ve been significant. Unfortunately for the Liberty, the refs determined it was the Aces’ ball.

The sequence unfolded right in front of Breanna 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 seemed to know what had just happened.

The Liberty defender had her arm out, ready to contest, but she never actually touched the ball. It was the kind of late‑game moment that feels like it happens in slow motion, especially in a tight matchup like this. A’ja Wilson’s reaction told its own story. She cried out in frustration as the ball slipped away, clearly believing she’d just turned it over.

Instead, the officials handed the ball back to the Aces and treated the play as if New York had knocked it out. That decision wiped away what should have been a golden Liberty possession with a chance to tie the game in the final 18 seconds.

To make matters worse, New York had already burned its coach’s challenge earlier, so there was no way to trigger a review. With the clock ticking away, Liberty had no choice but to foul on the next Aces possession and hope for a miracle that never came.

Normally, a missed call in the middle of a game gets buried under a hundred other plays by the time the final buzzer sounds. This one felt different.

For the Liberty fans, the loss would be very frustrating, especially the way it ended. And this match reflects what has gone on around the league this season, with Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and the league coming under intense scrutiny when it comes to officiating.

The league changed its metrics surrounding personal foul calls before the start of the season. This was done to reduce excessive physicality and emphasize freedom of movement. However, everyone, from fans and experts to analysts, has pointed out the inconsistency in officiating.

In fact, it was a missed call on June 24 that was at the origin of what became the league’s biggest controversy this year. During the game between the Indiana Fever and Phoenix Mercury, the officials didn’t call a foul in real-time despite Thomas making hard contact with Clark’s throat.

While they later reviewed the footage and upgraded it to a flagrant foul 2, the social media backlash against Thomas had already grown too extreme to control.

Now the WNBA is moving to a centralized Replay Center in Secaucus, New Jersey, aiming to address persistent officiating issues by overseeing every reviewable play from a single hub. The initiative is designed to bring tighter control, especially around physicality and contact, and reduce controversy.

Another step the league could take is adopting the NBA’s Last Two Minute Report (L2M), a detailed play-by-play review of calls and non-calls in the final two minutes of regulation or overtime. The report holds referees accountable by documenting both correct and missed decisions, offering transparency for teams, media, and fans.

Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said discussions with players have included the idea of an L2M, though she cautioned it would be “another huge allocation” alongside the expense of leveraging the NBA’s replay center.

However, that won’t be operational until the 2027 season, and this loss also ended up spoiling a historic night for Breanna Stewart.

Breanna Stewart didn’t get her cherry on the cake

Stewart had 26 points and 11 rebounds for New York against the Aces, and entered the hallowed 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 a live call when Stewart achieved this historic feat.

“And she’s doing it on a nasty angle right there. Got fouled twice… Stewie [is] already breaking my records. She made sure I was courtside for it,” Parker joked in the broadcasting clip that Sports on Prime posted on their Instagram after the game.

However, the controversial fourth-quarter call prevented it from being the historic occasion for Stewart. The Aces stayed in second place on the league standings with a 20-8 record. However, they snapped the Liberty’s three-game winning streak.

Even Liberty coach Chris DeMarco told the media after the game that he thought they had a chance to win the game, but chose to look at the positives.

“We had a chance to win. We gave ourselves a chance, and I’m really happy with the way the group fought back and we’re pretty resilient again.”

Meanwhile, Breanna Stewart wasn’t pleased with how her team played but also agreed that they didn’t give in till the final whistle.

“Honestly today, we lost by five, and there’s things that we could have done differently, and there’s calls that could have gone our way.”

Breanna Stewart, a three-time WNBA Champion, led the New York Liberty to their first franchise title in 2024. This season, she is averaging 21.4 points, 8.4 rebounds, 3.1 assists and 1.3 steals per game, leading the Liberty’s charge towards a deep postseason run.