Liberty fail to complete sweep as A’ja Wilson, Aces force Game 4 in semis

Viva Las Vegas, the Aces are still alive.

The Liberty were unable to vanquish the two-time defending champions Friday night in their first chance to secure a return to the WNBA Finals.

With a chance to sweep the best-of-five league semis against the team that knocked them out in the championship round one year ago, the Liberty were routed by league MVP A’ja Wilson and the Aces in the second half and fell, 95-81, at Michelob ULTRA Arena.

“They came out and did what they’re supposed to do,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said afterward. “We didn’t play very well, but they took us out of our rhythm.

“We’re still [up] 2-1, but we got to learn from this. Not a good game. Not happy. I think we lacked discipline. We’re a way better team than what we showed.”

Sabrina Ionescu, who led the Liberty with 24 points in Game 2, missed her first five shots and finished with just four points on 1-for-7 shooting with five turnovers and a minus-23 rating.

Breanna Stewart scored 19 points to lead the Liberty, who will get another chance to close out the series Sunday afternoon, with a potential decisive Game 5 slated for Tuesday at Barclays Center, if necessary.

“It felt like us. It was just a matter of time that we all started clicking,” Wilson said. “But we got to sustain this. This is just one game. This is really nothing. We got to continue to go and grow as we try to go to the next level.”

Wilson registered 19 points and 14 rebounds for the Aces, who have won a league record 12 straight postseason home games, with Jackie Young netting 24 and Kelsey Plum adding 20.

“Anyone play poker?” Vegas coach Becky Hammon asked before the game. “You going to fold pocket aces? We’re the Aces. We’re not going to fold.”

Hammon, a Hall of Famer who played the first eight of her 16 WNBA seasons in New York, said earlier this week that her players “quite frankly haven’t had the edge all year … and this is why three-peating is hard.”

The Libs were the No. 2 seed in the playoffs last year, dropping the first two games of the finals in Vegas before losing the series in four games.

The Liberty actually posted the same 16-4 record both at Barclays Center and on the road in securing the top seed during the regular season, plus four straight home wins to open the playoffs against the Atlanta Dream and the Aces.

They also had won both of their previous visits to Las Vegas this year.

Still, Ionescu missed all four of her shots and was blanked in a first half that featured 18 lead changes and ended with the Aces holding a 52-49 lead.

Then Plum buried a couple of 3-pointers as the Aces pulled away with a 17-0 run in the third to extend their advantage to 73-53, with the Liberty missing 12 consecutive shots and going nearly eight minutes without scoring at one point in the quarter.

Ionescu finally got on the scoresheet one minute into the fourth, but the Aces extended their lead to as many as 25 to ensure at least one more home game and a chance to send the series back to Brooklyn.

“A [17-0] run or whatever is ridiculous,” Stewart said. “This is when teams are most dangerous, when their backs are against the wall, when they’re going to throw everything they have at you. … We didn’t come ready for all that. We didn’t embrace the hard things. This s–t isn’t easy.

“We need to be ready for the next game because it’s not going to be easy from here.”