Former Duke women’s basketball star [autotag]Chelsea Gray[/autotag] advanced to the WNBA semifinals on Tuesday night when the Las Vegas Aces took down the Seattle Storm, and Gray made it visibly clear how important this postseason run is to her.
Gray was seen sharing emotional embraces after the 83-76 victory, emblematic of her trying season.
The three-time champion hurt her foot in last year’s WNBA Finals, an injury that kept her out of the first 12 games of this season. She didn’t see the court until mid-June and only played 26.0 minutes per game, her lowest total since her sophomore season in 2016.
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The former Blue Devil averaged 14.0 points and 8.0 assists in Vegas’s two games against the Storm, playing more than 30 minutes in both contests. The emotional victory comes weeks after she became the first Duke women’s basketball alum to win multiple Olympic gold medals with Team USA earlier this summer.
Gray and the Aces now face the top-seeded New York Liberty in a best-of-five series with a spot in the Finals on the line.
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The semifinal series begins on Saturday.