Mystics beat Sun at the foul line and in the finish, turning a one-basket shooting gap into a 79-69 win

Washington’s first push, then Connecticut’s answer

The opening quarter suggested a Mystics team that could turn small bursts into breathing room. Connecticut briefly led 8-6 after Aaliyah Edwards scored with 6:00 left in the first, but Washington answered in layers rather than with one long run. Sonia Citron leveled the game at the line, Georgia Amoore knocked down a 24-footer for the first three-point edge, and Lauren Betts added an inside finish. By the time Michaela Onyenwere drilled a 27-foot three with 31.5 seconds left and Kiki Iriafen hit a fadeaway with 0.6 on the clock, the Mystics had built a 23-16 lead that looked larger than the flow of the quarter.

Connecticut’s best stretch came in the second, when the Sun repeatedly erased Washington’s advantage without quite taking control of the night. Diamond Miller opened the quarter with a three, Raegan Beers completed a three-point play to cut it to one, and Miller’s second three of the period tied the game at 27. The Sun kept coming: Beers tied it again at 29, Miller’s layup put Connecticut up 31-29, and Leila Lacan’s free throws later made it 35-31. But every time the Sun pushed ahead, Washington had an answer close by. Shakira Austin tied it twice around the rim and at the stripe, Betts matched a Lacan jumper inside, and Cotie McMahon’s late sequence — a running layup and then a 24-foot three with 49.1 seconds left — sent the Mystics into halftime up 44-42 instead of chasing the game.

The third quarter where the margin finally bent

The game’s shape became clearer after halftime, not because Connecticut disappeared, but because Washington kept winning the next possession after every warning sign. Miller’s free throw made it 44-43 in the opening seconds of the third, and interior scores from Beers and Edwards kept the Sun within a point at 46-45 and 48-47. That was the danger stretch for Washington. The Mystics responded through the players who had steadied them all night: Citron scored on back-to-back possessions at 6:13 and 5:59, Austin kept marching to the line, and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton buried a three at 4:26. In a game that had lived on one-possession tension, Washington pushed from 48-47 to 59-50.

To Connecticut’s credit, that could have been the turning point that ended everything, and it was not. Charlisse Leger-Walker hit from deep, Nell Angloma chipped in, and Miller answered with another long three at 1:42 of the third. Edwards scored again with 1:03 left in the quarter, trimming the Mystics’ lead to 66-58 heading to the fourth. From there, the only confirmed story is the cleanest one: Washington won the last period 13-11. There was no late collapse and no wild swing back. The Mystics simply protected what they had built.

The numbers that actually decided it

This is one of those box scores that tells a sharper story than the shooting percentages alone. Connecticut made more field goals than Washington, 28 to 27. The Sun also finished with more rebounds, 43 to 34, and more assists, 21 to 13. On another night, that profile can be enough to win. On this night, it was not nearly enough to overcome the foul line.

Washington made 19 free throws to Connecticut’s eight, and that is the whole game compressed into one margin. The Mystics were also a little better from three, 6-for-19 to the Sun’s 5-for-23. Since both teams shot under 39 percent from the field, those extra points were not decorative; they were the difference between a close game deep into the fourth and a 10-point final. The Mystics did not need offensive elegance. They needed a cleaner path to points, and they found it.

Our take: a useful win for Washington, a frustrating lesson for Connecticut

Analysis: Washington should like the substance of this result more than the style. Winning while shooting 38.0 percent is a sign that the Mystics found another route, and their 19-for-25 night at the line was the most obvious one. Still, 13 assists on 27 made baskets suggests there were stretches when the offense could have flowed more easily. For a team that closed well enough to allow only 11 points in the fourth, the next step may be less about reinvention and more about turning some of those hard possessions into simpler ones.

Analysis: Connecticut will leave this one with a very specific irritation. The Sun rebounded well, moved the ball well enough to record 21 assists, and even finished with one more made field goal than Washington. Yet the loss never stopped feeling deserved because two statistical leaks were too big to ignore: 5-for-23 from three-point range and only 12 free-throw attempts compared with Washington’s 25. If the Sun want this kind of game to tip their way next time, the improvement case is straightforward. Keep the work on the glass, but turn more of that extra possession value into efficient scoring and shrink the foul-line gap that decided everything else.

Scoring moments

1. 1st Quarter · 8:46

   Diamond Miller makes 3-foot driving floating jump shot

2. 1st Quarter · 8:37

   Shakira Austin makes driving layup

3. 1st Quarter · 7:27

   Leila Lacan makes 20-foot pullup jump shot

4. 1st Quarter · 7:04

   Kiki Iriafen makes 3-foot driving floating jump shot

5. 1st Quarter · 6:22

   Leila Lacan makes 14-foot two point shot

6. 1st Quarter · 6:16

   Sonia Citron makes free throw 1 of 2

7. 1st Quarter · 6:16

   Sonia Citron makes free throw 2 of 2

8. 1st Quarter · 6:00

   Aaliyah Edwards makes driving layup (Charlisse Leger-Walker assists)

9. 1st Quarter · 5:23

   Sonia Citron makes 8-foot two point shot (Georgia Amoore assists)

10. 1st Quarter · 4:52

    Georgia Amoore makes 24-foot three pointer

11. 1st Quarter · 4:14

    Aaliyah Edwards makes driving layup (Diamond Miller assists)

12. 1st Quarter · 3:57

    Lauren Betts makes 3-foot two point shot

13. 1st Quarter · 3:37

    Shakira Austin makes free throw 1 of 2

14. 1st Quarter · 3:20

    Charlisse Leger-Walker makes 13-foot driving floating jump shot

15. 1st Quarter · 3:00

    Shakira Austin makes free throw 2 of 2

16. 1st Quarter · 2:43

    Nell Angloma makes 3-foot layup (Rayah Marshall assists)

17. 1st Quarter · 1:20

    Cotie McMahon makes driving layup

18. 1st Quarter · 59.0

    Lauren Betts makes free throw 2 of 2

19. 1st Quarter · 41.3

    Raegan Beers makes free throw 1 of 2

20. 1st Quarter · 41.3

    Raegan Beers makes free throw 2 of 2

21. 1st Quarter · 31.5

    Michaela Onyenwere makes 27-foot three point jumper (Lauren Betts assists)

22. 1st Quarter · 0.6

    Kiki Iriafen makes 14-foot fade away jump shot (Alicia Florez assists)

23. 2nd Quarter · 9:43

    Diamond Miller makes 22-foot three point jumper (Gianna Kneepkens assists)

24. 2nd Quarter · 9:20

    Raegan Beers makes driving layup (Diamond Miller assists)

25. 2nd Quarter · 9:20

    Raegan Beers makes free throw 1 of 1

26. 2nd Quarter · 9:07

    Shakira Austin makes free throw 1 of 2

27. 2nd Quarter · 9:07

    Shakira Austin makes free throw 2 of 2

28. 2nd Quarter · 8:52

    Gianna Kneepkens makes 10-foot pullup jump shot (Aaliyah Edwards assists)

29. 2nd Quarter · 7:13

    Michaela Onyenwere makes driving layup (Kiki Iriafen assists)

30. 2nd Quarter · 6:48

    Diamond Miller makes 24-foot three point jumper (Gianna Kneepkens assists)

31. 2nd Quarter · 6:22

    Sonia Citron makes free throw 1 of 2

32. 2nd Quarter · 6:22

    Sonia Citron makes free throw 2 of 2

33. 2nd Quarter · 6:05

    Raegan Beers makes two point shot

34. 2nd Quarter · 5:01

    Diamond Miller makes layup (Ashlon Jackson assists)

35. 2nd Quarter · 4:43

    Shakira Austin makes layup (Sonia Citron assists)

36. 2nd Quarter · 4:27

    Raegan Beers makes 2-foot layup (Leila Lacan assists)

37. 2nd Quarter · 4:03

    Leila Lacan makes free throw 1 of 2

38. 2nd Quarter · 4:03

    Leila Lacan makes free throw 2 of 2

39. 2nd Quarter · 3:49

    Shakira Austin makes driving layup (Cotie McMahon assists)

40. 2nd Quarter · 2:48

    Lauren Betts makes 5-foot two point shot

41. 2nd Quarter · 2:28

    Leila Lacan makes 20-foot pullup jump shot

42. 2nd Quarter · 2:09

    Lauren Betts makes layup

43. 2nd Quarter · 1:48

    Diamond Miller makes driving layup (Rayah Marshall assists)

44. 2nd Quarter · 1:38

    Shakira Austin makes free throw 1 of 2

45. 2nd Quarter · 1:38

    Shakira Austin makes free throw 2 of 2

46. 2nd Quarter · 1:16

    Cotie McMahon makes running layup

47. 2nd Quarter · 1:04

    Charlisse Leger-Walker makes 15-foot pullup jump shot (Rayah Marshall assists)

48. 2nd Quarter · 49.1

    Cotie McMahon makes 24-foot three point jumper (Shakira Austin assists)

49. 2nd Quarter · 32.7

    Diamond Miller makes free throw 1 of 2

50. 3rd Quarter · 9:42

    Diamond Miller makes free throw 1 of 2

51. 3rd Quarter · 9:18

    Shakira Austin makes 18-foot pullup jump shot (Georgia Amoore assists)

52. 3rd Quarter · 8:56

    Aaliyah Edwards makes 2-foot layup (Raegan Beers assists)

53. 3rd Quarter · 8:43

    Michaela Onyenwere makes driving layup

54. 3rd Quarter · 8:37

    Raegan Beers makes 2-foot layup (Leila Lacan assists)

55. 3rd Quarter · 6:13

    Sonia Citron makes driving layup

56. 3rd Quarter · 5:59

    Sonia Citron makes 10-foot two point shot

57. 3rd Quarter · 5:18

    Shakira Austin makes free throw 1 of 2

58. 3rd Quarter · 5:18

    Shakira Austin makes free throw 2 of 2

59. 3rd Quarter · 5:00

    Charlisse Leger-Walker makes 25-foot three point jumper (Nell Angloma assists)

60. 3rd Quarter · 4:49

    Shakira Austin makes free throw 1 of 2

61. 3rd Quarter · 4:49

    Shakira Austin makes free throw 2 of 2

62. 3rd Quarter · 4:26

    Betnijah Laney-Hamilton makes 24-foot three point jumper (Sonia Citron assists)

63. 3rd Quarter · 4:10

    Nell Angloma makes free throw 1 of 2

64. 3rd Quarter · 3:26

    Cotie McMahon makes driving layup

65. 3rd Quarter · 3:00

    Sonia Citron makes free throw 1 of 2

66. 3rd Quarter · 3:00

    Sonia Citron makes free throw 2 of 2

67. 3rd Quarter · 2:42

    Nell Angloma makes driving layup (Ashlon Jackson assists)

68. 3rd Quarter · 2:05

    Cotie McMahon makes 26-foot three pointer (Lauren Betts assists)

69. 3rd Quarter · 1:42

    Diamond Miller makes 25-foot three point jumper (Leila Lacan assists)

70. 3rd Quarter · 1:03

    Aaliyah Edwards makes driving layup (Nell Angloma assists)

71. 4th Quarter · 8:34

    Leila Lacan makes 28-foot three point jumper (Gianna Kneepkens assists)

72. 4th Quarter · 7:31

    Georgia Amoore makes 23-foot three point jumper (Cotie McMahon assists)

73. 4th Quarter · 7:04

    Cotie McMahon makes free throw 2 of 2

74. 4th Quarter · 6:17

    Shakira Austin makes two point shot

75. 4th Quarter · 5:05

    Nell Angloma makes 2-foot layup (Charlisse Leger-Walker assists)

76. 4th Quarter · 4:53

    Shakira Austin makes free throw 2 of 2

77. 4th Quarter · 4:23

    Shakira Austin makes 2-foot layup (Sonia Citron assists)

78. 4th Quarter · 2:56

    Shakira Austin makes 14-foot pullup jump shot (Georgia Amoore assists)

79. 4th Quarter · 2:37

    Gianna Kneepkens makes 12-foot pullup jump shot (Nell Angloma assists)

80. 4th Quarter · 1:39

    Georgia Amoore makes 3-foot two point shot

81. 4th Quarter · 1:26

    Diamond Miller makes driving layup (Charlisse Leger-Walker assists)

82. 4th Quarter · 29.6

    Rayah Marshall makes two point shot