Story By: Erin Zollars
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Baltimore, MD–
Just a day before the big match-up in Baltimore against the Fever it was announced that Caitlin Clark would be out of tonight’s game against the Mystics in Baltimore. Quite a few people opted not to come at all but based on the crowd we saw last night at CFG Bank Arena, fans were just excited to get a glimpse of her on the bench in what appeared to be an assistant coach role. Clark did take the time to interact with fans and signed autographs pre-game for over 12 minutes. The Mystics were also able to battle out an 83-77 victory and get back on the winning track.
Tonight was the first time in Caitlin Clark’s career she missed a regular-season game after playing in all 40 games and both playoff games last season and the first four games this year. While the Fever have quite a few other scorers on their team, it is clear they miss the overall court presence of Clark to get the ball to players at the right time. The Mystics were able to capitalize on the absence with their size and depth late in the game.
Brittney Sykes who continues to lead this Mystics team finished the night with 21 points and nine rebounds, Kiki Iriafen added 16 points and their presence on court together continues to provide the needed scoring to stay competitive in close games like the one tonight.
The Mystics were able to stretch their lead to seven points at the end of the third quarter. They held the Fever to just 13 points and five field goals in the period.
The big difference in tonight’s game was that the Fever shot just 4-of-19 from the 3-point line. Sydney Colson who was the replacement in the starting lineup for Clark scored just 4 points.
Washington continues to see increased performance from Shakira Austin as she scored 13 points off the bench and continues to be that player they have been looking for off the bench. Let’s hope she stays healthy and continues to provide that punch of 10 to 12 bench points production in each game.
Indiana had one last strike at the Mystics opening the fourth quarter cutting into the lead and getting as close as 4 points with the lay-up by Dewanna Bonner with 7:57 remaining in the game. The two buckets by Iriafen stretched the lead back to 8 points at 68-60 and that was a close as the Fever would come the remainder of the game.
Washington has a huge game on Friday night back in D.C against the undefeated Liberty. With the Mystics sitting in the middle of WNBA standings at 3-3 and a victory would get them right back in the thick of the top of the standings going into another game next week against the Fever on the road.
