Story By: Erin Zollars
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Washington, D.C–
It seems there are two types of Mystics teams, one that finds their offense early and takes leads and the other that lets the other team find theirs and ways to win games late and even into overtime. Tonight’s game against the Sun was no exception to that.
Let’s rewind to the first half of this game and all the way back to 8:31 of the second quarter when Jade Melbourne made a 23-foot three-point jumper of a DiDi Richards assist that gave the Mystics a 37-21 lead. That’s right the Mystics had a 16-point lead and blew it.
By the time the halftime buzzer sounded, the Mystics had just a 4-point lead at 50-46.
Starting out the second half you could start to see some of the fatigue that having just 8 players available for the Mystics was taking a toll on their scoring with just 5 points in a little over 6 minutes it allowed the Sun to start to make their move and settle into their offense going into the 4th quarter.
Tyasha Harris made a 3-pointer with 49.2 seconds left in regulation to get Connecticut to 82-80. After a Washington turnover, DiJonai Carrington drove the baseline and made a layup while being fouled with 24.3 seconds left. But Carrington missed the free throw to keep it tied at 82-all.
Washington held the ball at the top of the key to wind down the clock before beginning its offense with about 5 seconds left. Vanloo drove into the lane, making contact with Veronica Burton and the officials called an offensive foul. Connecticut had a good look at a game-winning shot, but Bonner’s long 3-pointer bounced off the rim.
Next up for the Mystics is another tough match-up against Aja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces on Saturday at 2pm.
