Las Vegas Aces guard Kelsey Plum said there’s no moral victories in pro sports, but the Aces made a statement Sunday by nearly knocking off the top-ranked New York Liberty 75-71 in Brooklyn despite being without MVP favorite A’ja Wilson (ankle).

The Aces fell behind by as many as 20 but roared back before ultimately going ahead by one on a Sydney Colson 3-pointer with 1:54 to play. The Liberty defense held the two-time defending champs scoreless after that point, and Sabrina Ionescu scored the go-ahead basket with 43.6 seconds left.

With the victory, New York secured its first sweep over the Aces since the franchise relocated to Las Vegas, previously beating the squad earlier this summer by 8 and 12 points on the road.

“Experience, been there, done that, I suppose,” New York coach Sandy Brondello said on how the team pulled out the win. “Not happy, some parts were a good part of our game, but the rest of it wasn’t. But this team, we’ve been through so much adversity, I think just a little bit of experience, we didn’t want to let this one slip.”

Added Jonquel Jones: “Honestly, at the end, it was just whatever we had to do, whatever it takes to get a win and focus on the next possession, not on how we felt about the game as a whole.”

Sunday’s highly anticipated matchup looked like it was going to get out of hand in the third quarter, when New York built a 20-point edge. But with a group of mostly reserves on the floor, Las Vegas started to chip away, trailing by 13 heading into the fourth and continuing to cut the deficit from there.

Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon — who credited her group’s fight and effort the entire afternoon without Wilson — said the bench went in and moved the ball much better than the team did in the second quarter, when the Aces managed just nine points.

“They gave us really a chance to crawl back in there and stick our nose in where people probably didn’t think it was going to be today,” Hammon said.