Story By: Erin Zollars
Photos By: Sol Tucker
Washington, D.C–
As many people in the D.C area celebrate the holiday weekend, the Mystics returned home after a long tough road trip for a day off before they face a tough week of opponents in Indiana on Wednesday in Baltimore and back home against the Liberty on Friday night. Can this team get over that hump after the promising first 2 victories?
These two games against Phoenix and Las Vegas showed us how resilient this team could be under the pressure of having two young players lead the team without Brittany Sykes or Alliyah Edwards in the line-up. Both players have missed games over the first two weeks, and the Mystics need to have them in the line-up for an extended period of time to take the heavy lifting off their young stars.
Both Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen have performed better than expected to start the season, but the inexperience showed during the game against Phoenix, where the Mystics turned the ball over 29 times in the game that was a lot closer than it should have been and could have been the break the Mystics needed going into the game on Wednesday against Indiana.
The Mercury’s 29 forced turnovers from the Mystics are the most in a non-overtime game in franchise history. According to Elias Sports Bureau, this is just the third time in franchise history that a Mercury opponent has recorded 29-plus turnovers in any game.
Prior to the game against the Mercury the Mystics had a bad beat against the Aces when Jackie Young hit a buzzer beater to send the Mystics to a 75-72 loss, but again Iriafen put up numbers and proved that this top draft pick is going to be a lot to deal with when it comes to rebounded and getting into the paint.
Iriafen, the No. 4 pick in last month’s WNBA draft, recorded a double-double in three consecutive games, the first rookie to accomplish the feat in franchise history.
Next stop.. Baltimore. We all know that this game is going to be one everyone watches for quite a few different reasons. So, let’s get out the popcorn, we know what happened in that preseason game in Indy and don’t expect this to be anything less in the regular season. These Mystics youngsters have something to prove, and Caitlin Clark isn’t going to stand in the way for them to find it either.
