Mystics fumble away opportunities in loss
By Keith Henry

WASHINGTON- If the Washington Mystics desire to advance to the playoffs, they must take care of the basketball and capitalize on their opportunities. Neither of those things they accomplished late in their 80-73 loss to the New York Liberty in a rare afternoon game at the Verizon Center.

The Mystics continued their league worse turnover situation with another 20 turnovers in the game in which the Liberty scored 24 points off of. The three point line was the major difference in the game as New York (13-10) converted 10 from the outside to just three for the Mystics. “That’s just who we are. I thought that McCarville did an unbelievable job of getting penetration and kicking and the same thing with Loree Moore and Mitchell. I just thought that we got good penetration and we had an opportunity to knock down some shots today and we did,” said Liberty head coach Pat Coyle.

Mystics head coach Jessie Kenlaw said, “The biggest difference was that we missed free throws tonight. If we made our free throws, we’d maybe have an opportunity to win the game and we didn’t defend the three-point line very well. I thought our performance overall was a lot better than what we showed when we played them (in NY). But it was the little things down the stretch; I think that got us into trouble today.”

The last time the Mystics played in New York, they struggled worse in a 77-56 loss. Alana Beard said about the difference with those two games, “I think we came out as a team and competed which we didn’t do the first couple of games. We had a little more direction and focused on what we had to do. It’s very unfortunate that we came out with the loss.”

New York’s Tiffany Jackson, who led New York with 14 points, said, “I think the Mystics are playing a lot harder. I think they’re a lot more intense and so we just had to match that intensity today.”

The Mystics dominated in the paint, outscoring the Liberty 54-26. This was something Coach Kenlaw emphasized and it helped at times. Taj McWilliams-Franklin, who led all scorers with 19 points, stated, “Coach Kenlaw has always talked about paint presence. And she thinks we should start inside and go out because just like we have to help in on their post and leave their guards open, most teams have to do that with us. She wants us to establish in the paint and then kick it out because the guards will be open afterwards. It works because we have great post players. For us, it’s a great opportunity for us to show our skills because New York likes to double. They’re really tough inside.”

However, it didn’t matter as the difference was outside the paint and with a lot of helping out on the defensive side, NY capitalized on open shot opportunities. We did and that was part of our game plan. We felt like we had an advantage in the paint and we did dominate the paint. But unfortunately, we didn’t cover outside the paint. That was the problem,” said Kenlaw.

Washington (9-15) made their charge in the third quarter again. Down 41-32 with 8:06 remaining, Washington outscored the Liberty 17-3. That included an 8-0 spurt when the defense contributed to the offense. Crystal Langhorne got in Tiffany Jackson’s way in the paint and took a charge. Moments later, Beard strolled down and buried a close jumper. Then, after the defense forced the Liberty to a shot clock violation, Nakia Sanford converted a lay-up to give the Mystics a 49-44 lead with 2:24 left in the quarter.

However, the Liberty fought back by scoring eight unanswered points themselves. Leilani Mitchell and Erin Thorn nailed back-to-back three pointers and Ashley Battle converted a couple of free throws to give New York a 52-49 advantage with 12.3 seconds left in the quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Mystics had several chances to win. However, they couldn’t make the shots. Down the stretch, New York ran through the Mystics defense like a hot knife through butter.

With 1:57 left and New York ahead 71-69, the Liberty missed a shot but was able to get a jump ball. New
York won the tip and Jackson swished a 14-footer. The dagger came later as the Mystics defense allowed Moore to drive the baseline and convert a lay-up with 41.9 seconds left to stretch the Liberty advantage to 75-69. It was academic at that point. New York’s Cathrine Kraayeveld said, “I think we did a good job of sharing the ball. I think we’re a pretty unselfish team and we really try to look for each other and who has the best shot and we really did a great job of that today.”