Mystics 83 - Sun 64 - Washington Mystics

NOTEWORTHY

The Mystics were led by forward Monique Currie who led all scorers with 19 points. 10 of her points came in the first quarter where Currie shot 5-for-6 from the free throw line, 2-for-2 from the field and connected on one three-pointer

Mystics forward Crystal Langhorne posted a double-double, scoring 18 points and grabbing 13 boards. Langhorne shot 8-for-13 from the field and finished with five assists in 27 minutes of play. Langhorne scored 12 of her 18 points in the third quarter alone, shooting 5-for-6 from the field

The game featured five lead changes and six ties. The Mystics led by as much as 25 points in the game. The Sun led by as much as two points and did not see the lead again after half time

The Mystics shot 18-for-23 from the free throw line, shooting .783 from the charity stripe. The Mystics also dished out 18 assists and out rebounded the Sun 40-26

The Sun were led by guard Asjha Jones who scored 17 points, shooting 7-for-11 from the field and 3-for-5 from the free throw line

QUOTES

WASHINGTON MYSTICS HEAD COACH TRUDI LACEY

Overall Thoughts:
We played hard in this game. Our execution on the offensive end was not what we wanted especially down the stretch. But I felt we put together two halves. We were inconsistent on both sides of the ball. I thought our half-court defense was good but we need to work on our transition defense. Overall I feel like we executed our defensive game well. We wanted to run for four quarters. On the offensive game, we are learning each other a little better. We had 18 assists as a team which is much improved from the first game.

On the leadership:
Ive asked Monique (Currie) and Crystal (Langhorne) to step up in terms of leadership and lead by example and also be vocal leaders, so I think they have embraced that role. The other thing that has helped us thus far is that we have more veteran players and they are professionals and take care of business.

WASHINGTON MYSTICS FORWARD MONIQUE CURRIE

Overall thoughts on her performance
It feels good, you know, first win right out of the season, we still have a lot of things to work on, but I think overall we did well.

Overall thoughts on team chemistry
I think we have to work on our team chemistry, really making sure that everyone on the team gets along and plays well together.

WASHINGTON MYSTICS FORWARD CRYSTAL LANGHORNE

Overall thoughts on her performance
It felt great playing home again; you know we really want to change things this year. Overall though this game was good.

Overall thoughts on team chemistry
Yeah, we have been working on that throughout the summer, we had team building exercises and over the summer really worked on team chemistry. We did yoga, I wasnt there for the Navy Seals training but we did that. We also just had team building where we just pretty much talked.

CONNECTICUT SUN HEAD COACH MIKE THIBAULT

Overall thoughts:
It felt like an exhibition game, both teams were experimenting, I thought they played with a lot better rhythm to the game than we did. I think she (Lacey) felt more comfortable with her key front line players, obviously theyre still missing some guards but Im disappointed with some of the things we did tonight that weve done better in our first two, and Im sure shes happier than she was the other day. Exhibitions are hard to give a judgment too. What can you improve upon moving forward? I thought defensively we were just mediocre, they were much more aggressive and active than we were, and we didnt do a good enough job on the boards. Did you feel like missing Tina Charles was a huge loss? For us its a key thing, shes one of the best players in the league we dont need her now we need her when it counts.