A 9-0 run, and the rest was routine
Chicago led 10-9 with 6:54 left in the first quarter. That was the last time the Sky were in front of anything.
Washington answered with a 9-0 run inside the next 2:17, Shakira Austin scoring four of the points and Kiki Iriafen adding a three, and the visitors never looked back. The lead reached 32. The final margin, 110-80, understated how one-sided the second half had been: the Mystics won it 58-39.
Austin finished with 20 points. Iriafen had 18 and 11 rebounds, her seventh double-double in a row, a run that now stretches across the World Cup break and back into August.
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Depth covering for an absence
Sonia Citron did not play, out for personal reasons. She had come into the night level with Austin as Washington’s leading scorer at 16.8 points per game, and losing that on the road at short notice usually costs a team something. It cost the Mystics nothing.
All five starters reached double figures. Georgia Amoore and Michaela Onyenwere scored 12 apiece, Cotie McMahon added 11. Washington are 25-16 and have won four of their last five since the league restarted, which moved them half a game clear of the idle New York Liberty and level with Dallas in sixth place in the playoff draw.
The win also settled the season series against Chicago, which matters if tiebreakers come into play over the final week.
Chicago running out of bodies
The Sky played without DiJonai Carrington, who has a left foot problem, and lost Natasha Cloud at half-time to a left knee injury. Five players still reached double figures, led by Courtney Vandersloot with 14 and Sydney Taylor with 12, while Rachel Banham, Kamilla Cardoso and Gabriela Jaquez each scored 10. Spreading the scoring that thinly against a top-six team rarely ends well.
Chicago are 15-26, beaten four times in a row and seven times in their last 10. They see Washington again in the regular-season finale on September 24, this time in the capital.
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