Basketball fans were loving a viral image of Las Vegas Aces rookie Kate Martin and superstar Kelsey Plum during Saturday’s home contest against the Los Angeles Sparks.
During the fourth quarter of the game at Michelob Ultra Arena, Kate Martin blocked a shot by Sparks center Li Yueru to save two points for the home team. The Aces would squeak out an 89-82 victory to improve to 2-0.
Here’s the video of Martin’s highlight reel play:
And here’s an epic shot from a photographer of Plum’s reaction to the block:
This image of Plum and Martin quickly went viral and garnered plenty of awesome reactions on social media:
The Aces selected Kate Martin in the second round (18th overall) in last month’s 2024 WNBA Draft. Martin and Caitlin Clark (the first overall pick to the Indiana Fever) helped the Iowa Hawkeyes to consecutive national championship game appearances in 2023 and 2024 which they lost to LSU and South Carolina, respectively.
In Saturday’s victory against Los Angeles, Martin played 26 minutes and tallied three points, five rebounds and three assists to go along with her block.
Las Vegas continues their four-game homestand with another contest against Phoenix on Tuesday before welcoming Clark and the Fever next Saturday.
Kate Martin & Aces Are Off To Excellent 2-0 Start
The reigning WNBA Champions opened their season with an 89- 80 victory over the visiting Phoenix Mercury on Tuesday. Five days later, they snuck past the Sparks to improve to 2-0 on the young season.
Center A’ja Wilson and guard Jackie Young are dominating in the early going. The former is averaging an impressive 26 points, 11.5 rebounds, three assists, two steals and 2.5 blocks per contest.
As for Young, she’s averaging 22.5 points, 6.5 rebounds, 8.5 assists and 2.5 steals per game. She nearly put up a triple-double in the opener against the Mercury (22 points, six rebounds and 11 assists) while going 4-of-9 from beyond the arc.
Hot news:
Angel Reese's GPA Revealed. Much lower than everyone's "Imagination". Angel's Intelligence Was Compared, Doubted, and Mocked, She "Almost Went Crazy" Because It "Repeated" Too Many Times
The new Chicago Sky star is ready to put college behind her.
ngel Reese says her mother is relieved she can “live her best life” after revealing she will graduate on time from LSU on Saturday to collect her degree.
Reese is set to graduate from LSU on Saturday, bringing an official end to her four-year college career, as she now turns her focus to becoming a professional basketball player.
The No.7 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft joined Chicago Sky in April and will make her debut this week for her new team, and that was followed by the exciting news of her graduation to celebrate her academic achievements.
The 22-year-old wrote on her X account: “ahhh i graduate on saturday!!! ON TIME IN MY 4 YEARS i don’t have to wake up and think about another assignment lmaoooo. i called my momma & she running around the house so happy cause she know all the odds that were against me & she so happy it’s all over and i can live my best life now.”
It will be a relief for Reese, who can focus on making her debut for the Sky against the Dallas Wings on Wednesday evening, in more ways than one after receiving criticism about her GPA.
A bizarre row ends in Reese victory
It comes after a bizarre row erupted between her mom and the mother of her LSU team-mate Flau’jae Johnson on social media over grammar, which she then linked to Reese’s school struggles.
Reese was benched for an early portion of the LSU season over an undisclosed reason, with rumors that her low GPA was to blame.
Angel Reese’s mom, Angel Webb Reese, posted a message on Instagram that called out people for not spelling correctly in texts. That comment sparked a reply from Kia Brooks, the mother of Flua’jae Johnson, who launched an astonishing attack on the Reeses.
“You definitely know about grammar errors when your daughter got a 2.0 or less GPA. And in fact when writing your smart message you didn’t capitalize nor did you use any periods,” Brooks said.
“Stop being petty, fake and hateful, and take responsibility for you and your daughters actions. Your just as responsible you raised her that way.”
But Reese, with a professional career and net worth of $1.7million to add to her college degree, will have the last laugh.
Hot news:
The Indiana Fever rookie isn’t having ‘fun’ anymore...
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft and former Iowa sensation Caitlin Clark is still searching for her first-career win with the Indiana Fever following another loss Wednesday night. The Fever lost 85-83 to the Seattle Storm, dropping to 0-5 on the season as a result. Clark scored a team-high 21 points in the loss and is trying to remain optimistic despite the frustrating start to her WNBA career.
"You're never happy to lose," Clark said postgame. "It's not fun, but at the same time there's just a lot of things to build on. That's why I'm just trying to be as positive as possible, continue to learn, continue to stack days. I know our first win will be right around the corner."
Clark had a costly turnover in the final seconds of the fourth quarter as Indiana attempted to take the lead late in a one-possession game in front of a sold-out Seattle crowd of 18,343 — its largest in franchise history and most for a WNBA regular-season game since 2018.
"I think you can, but at the same time these two definitely hurt the most," Clark said. "We're what, six points away from being 2-3 instead of 0-5? It's that close and there's so many instances of going back and watching the film of little things that you can easily fix and clean up that would go a really long way and possibly wouldn't come down to one possession. I think you have to find confidence in that, especially at this point being 0-5. If you just get upset by it I don't think that's going to be too beneficial for us."
Through five games of her rookie WNBA season, Clark is averaging 17.9 points per game, which is 15th-most in the league. She also averages 4.6 rebounds and 5.8 assists while shooting 40.3% from the field and 32.6% from 3-point range.
Clark broke numerous records during her four-year college career at Iowa where she became a household name. Women's college basketball reached incredible new heights in popularity this past season with star players, a list headlined by Clark. Iowa drew record TV ratings for the Elite Eight, Final Four and national championship games. Clark became the all-time scoring leader for any NCAA Division I player — men's and women's — while also surpassing Lynette Woodard as the all-time scoring leader in major women's college basketball with 3,951 career points.
News
“Troubled” Clark and Her $20 Million Nike Deal Called into Question as Aces’ Owner Faces WNBA Funding Probe
The Las Vegas Aces are the two-time defending champs but they have taken a backseat to the Indiana Fever due to Caitlin Clark’s arrival in the WNBA. The Fever made the former Iowa superstar the No. 1 pick in this year’s…
Caitlin Had to Sit on the Bench while ‘In Good form’ because of Her own Mistaken Decision, which Led to Heavy Criticism of Her coach. Is this Considered ‘Personal Vendetta’?
Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever suffered their fifth loss of the season, in their fifth game. Clark and the Fever haven’t been able to connect the dots to claw out a victory. They started the season getting blown out by…
“True Friendship” Nika Muhl has always received Support from Former Teammate Paige Bueckers since the Early Days of WNBA “This is the one”. I don’t expect them to be “Competitors” in the future.
Paige Bueckers is following the journey of all her ex-UConn Huskies teammates, who have taken steps into the WNBA. She took to X to share league rookie Nika Muhl’s edgy outfit she chose to wear in the tunnel before a…
Jewell Loyd – Caitlin’s opponent, sent her four messages after the Fever vs. Storm game just took place and the Fever lost five games in a row: “Everyone’s journey is different.”
Not many would understand the pressure that Caitlin Clark feels at any given moment. However, another first-round pick can certainly try to. Although pressing the fact that everyone’s journey in the W is different, Jewell Loyd still shares what her rookie year was like….
Astounding!!! Nika Muhl’s mid-court shot before the Seattle Storm vs Minnesota Lynx game had everyone “gasping”. This is why, despite encountering “unplayable” troubles earlier, Nika always finds a spot in the starting lineup???
Nika Muhl has become a women’s basketball fan favorite over the past two months. While the Croatian guard was already popular among UConn fans during her NCAA tenure, Muhl’s excellent defense against Caitlin Clark during the 2024 NCAA tournament made fans fall…
End of content
No more pages to load
