Alana Beard is having the best season of her five-year WNBA career, but that hasn't helped the Washington Mystics enjoy much success in 2008.

Beard will try to help the Mystics avoid their third straight loss on Sunday, when they host the Western Conference-leading San Antonio Silver Stars.

Washington (6-10) has lost eight of 12 after a 2-2 start this season. The Mystics are the WNBA's lowest scoring team at 70.1 points per game despite the contributions from Beard, who is among the league's top scorers at 19.5 points.

Beard was 11-of-19 from the field, and finished with 31 points on Tuesday in Washington's 87-81 loss to Sacramento. She was two points shy of matching her career high set on June 3 in a loss to Phoenix.

"You can't stop her one-on-one," Monarchs coach Jenny Boucek said of Beard. "She has added a 3-point shot and she always had an ability to penetrate and post up. She's just very tough to defend."

Beard's effort wasn't enough, though, as Washington was outscored 12-6 in the final 1:43. The loss came after the Mystics had their lowest scoring game of the year, falling 64-49 last Sunday in Seattle.

Despite the defeats, coach Tree Rollins was pleased with his team's effort Tuesday.

"We played poorly against Seattle, but we really showed up tonight," he said. "We rebounded well, we executed our offense and did a lot of things well, we just weren't able to come up with the win."

Washington is 3-5 when scoring less than 70 points per game, and next face a San Antonio team, which has one of the best scoring defenses, allowing 70.7 points.

Streaking San Antonio (11-6) has won eight of 10 with the only losses coming in a home-and-home series with Houston late last month. Sunday's game, though, begins a tough 10-day stretch the Silver Stars, who will play four of their next six on the road, where they are 2-5.

San Antonio improved to a league-best 9-1 at home with a 68-67 win over the Monarchs on Thursday as Sophia Young converted a three-point play with 5.5 seconds to play.

"Things like this you dream about it," said Young, who finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds. "Sometimes, you never get a chance to experience it."

Young leads the Silver Stars with a career-high 18.2 points per game, but averaged 22.3 while helping them sweep a three-game homestand.

Young suffered a groin injury, and was limited to eight points - ending a streak of 25 straight double-digit games - in San Antonio's 63-52 win over Washington on June 6. Becky Hammon scored 16 of her 20 points in the second half for the Silver Stars.

Beard led Washington with 13.