Megan Gustafson scored a career-high 24 points and Tiffany Hayes added 21 points, her season-high, as the Las Vegas Aces defeated the Dallas Wings 98-84 on Thursday, both teams’ final regular-season game.

The Aces (27-13), with four of their regular players on the bench in civilian clothes, had a 15-point lead at halftime, extended it to 20 after three quarters and cruised to a comfortable victory. Dallas, which played mainly with substitutes in the fourth quarter, came within nine points at the end, but then lost.

The Aces knew going into the game that they couldn’t improve from fourth place in the upcoming playoffs, so they have little to worry about other than postseason momentum. Las Vegas will play fifth-seeded Seattle at home on Sunday and Tuesday in the first two games of the best-of-three series.

Both teams left key players on the bench; Las Vegas played without A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, Chelsey Gray and Jackie Young, while the Wings’ Arike Ogunbowale and Teaira McGowan were unused. McGowan’s absence was due to a game suspension for accumulating a technical foul.

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

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

The score was tied 30-30 after one quarter before the Aces took the lead with a 12-0 run to start the second, capped by a 3-pointer from Colson. Dallas caught up and got within 49-42 when Jaelyn Brown sank a jump shot at the 3:52 mark. But that seemed to shake up Las Vegas, which closed the half on an 11-3 run to take a 60-45 lead into the break.

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

Dallas was able to reduce its deficit to 10 points three times in the third quarter, but could not get any closer. Las Vegas led 88-68 before the final quarter.

–Field level media