MYSTICS NOTES

• The Washington Mystics (10-5) defeated the New York Liberty (4-10), 80-77, on forward Elena Delle Donne’s 3-pointer as time expired. Delle Donne scored a team-high 22 points on 7-16 (.437) from the field and 7-7 (1.000) from the free throw line and has now scored 20+ points in three consecutive games.
• With the win, the Mystics have now recorded two separate streaks of 4+ wins for the first time since 2010, when they recorded three. Washington opened the 2018 season with wins over Indiana (twice), Las Vegas and Minnesota.
• Mystics guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough made her first start of the season, scoring 12 points on 3-9 (.333) from the field and 4-4 (1.000) from the free throw line. The second-year guard also tied for a team-high three assists. The double-digit scoring performance was Walker-Kimbrough’s first of the season.
• Mystics guard Kristi Toliver scored 10 points and has now scored in double figured in six of her last seven outings.
• Despite losing the total rebound battle, 34-33, Washington outdid New York on the offensive boards, 10-7, leading to an 18-10 advantage in second-chance points.
• The Mystics held a 44-39 lead at halftime, despite New York shooting 18-33 (.545) from the field. Washington was led by Delle Donne and Walker-Kimbrough, who scored 10 points apiece.
• Washington led 23-22 after one quarter, thanks to a seven-point opening frame from Walker-Kimbrough. The Mystics converted on all eight of their free throws in the first quarter.
• New York’s Kia Vaughn finished with a season-high 16 points. Her previous high was eight, a total she exceeded in the first half.
• The Liberty’s Tina Charles scored 18 points to go along with seven rebounds and six assists. She has scored in double figures every game this season.
• The Mystics take on the Phoenix Mercury on Saturday, June 30 at 7:30 p.m. at Capital One Arena in game number three of a four-game homestand. Washington defeated Phoenix, 103-95, in the teams’ only previous meeting this season.

MYSTICS HEAD COACH MIKE THIBAULT

On the game:

“Well, sometimes, four or five times a year, you don’t play your best basketball but you figure out a way to win a game. That’s kind of what we did. We didn’t shoot the ball well at all. Credit to New York’s defense – I thought they were really good defensively for a good part of the game. The things that we preach every day that can get you through bad shooting nights actually came through – get to the free-throw line more, get more rebounds and don’t turn the ball over as much as the other team. If you win two of those three – I think we won all three tonight – that can get you through games where you’re struggling a bit. I’m proud of them for that. Hell of a shot that [Elena Delle Donne] made at the end, despite the fact that we probably should have been shooting three free throws, but that’s the way it goes.”

On the game-winning play:

“The first option was if we could sneak a layup through, [Monique] Currie would have tried. Then we have a sequence where Kristi [Toliver] came off wide open, throw it to her, and the next on was popping Elena [Delle Donne] back … The way we ran the play, they had to help on Kristi [Toliver] and that bought Elena [Delle Donne] some space. A lot of times you get cuts to the basket. It was just one of those ones where you are actually trying to pick on good defense.”

MYSTICS FORWARD ELENA DELLE DONNE

On how the Mystics started the game:

“I don’t know, it just was a little funky. I didn’t feel like we were getting into a rhythm, but we were able to start pulling some stops together, help one another.”

On how tonight’s win impacts the rest of the season:

“Yeah it’s huge you know, even though it’s a condensed season, it is still a pretty long season, and there are games where you know you don’t have the right mojo and the right energy all the time but to come away with a win and at home it is really important to get wins at home, so its huge for us to come away with this one.”

MYSTICS GUARD NATASHA CLOUD

On the rivalry with the New York Liberty:

“It’s probably one of my favorite games of the season always, it is always a competitive dogfight. That is why you play a game, for games like this that go down to the wire, and you know it was our night tonight, but it could be their night on any other night, but you know we didn’t have our best game but we executed, we got rebounds when we needed to, stops when we needed to, so it was an all-around team win again for us tonight.”

MYSTICS LEADERS:
Points: Elena Delle Donne-22
Rebounds: LaToya Sanders -6

Assists: Sanders, Shatori Walker-Kimbrough – 3
Steals: Numerous players-1

LIBERTY HEAD COACH KATIE SMITH

On their emphasis on transition baskets:

“Scoring the basketball is key in this league and we have to find ways to get easy buckets – put pressure on the defense. We have a deep team so any chance we can get to get easy layups, early post-ups, we will take them before the defense sets.”

On their poor 3-point percentage:

“I thought most of them were decent, but there are some times where I think maybe we can pound it inside again, that is somewhere where we have an advantage, especially tonight. Just throw it in and let them play off of that to get good looks but again, we want our shooters to take good shots and I thought they did that, and again they go down and maybe it is a different story.”

LIBERTY GUARD EPIPHANNY PRINCE

On her mindset going into this game:

“I just wanted to be more aggressive. Katie [Smith] and her coaching staff basically have all been on me to be more aggressive and stop passing up shots and that is what I tried to focus on.”

On what they need to do moving forward:

“Basically just try to take it one game at a time and keep building on what we have. We still have a lot of season left.”

LIBERTY CENTER KIA VAUGHN

On going up against Elena Della Donne:

“Just make her work. Defensively, she has to work and offensively, make her get the ball in places she doesn’t want to get the ball in but overall, just trying to go around her length. She is tall, she is long, she has long arms.”

LIBERTY LEADERS:
Points: Tina Charles – 18
Rebounds: Charles – 7

Assists: Charles-6
Steals: Bria Hartley, Epiphanny Prince – 1