Seattle’s late turnovers handed the Mystics a come from behind victory

Three turnovers in the last three minutes of the game handed Washington (11-10) an 84-79 win over the Storm (6-19) on Sunday evening. Poor passes, and a couple of offensive fouls, gave the Mystics offense the opportunity to pull away from Seattle in the final minutes before an Awa Fam travel turned into a Shakira Austin dagger with less than a minute left on the game clock.

Fam drove towards the net when she took multiple steps that were not part of her shooting motion as her squad trailed by four with 1:10 left on the clock. The Mystics quickly got the ball down the court before Austin was able to get the ball within four feet of he net to push their lead to six with only 58.6 seconds left on the clock. Because Seattle’s offense had struggled with the three all game, Austin’s bucket put the game out of reach.

Seattle had built a six point lead at the start of the fourth quarter despite the fact that the offensive production was practically none existent out side of one player. The offense only hit 26% of its three point attempts and 43% of is field goals. There were only two Storm scorers in double digits, while Washington had four.

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Natisha Heideman scored a career high of 31 points to lead all scorers in the loss; while all-star Dominique Malogna was the next highest scorer for Seattle with 10. As for the rest of the offense, there were two scorers at nine, then the fourth best scorer had five points.

Washington was able to chip away at the Storm’s initial lead in the fourth thanks to the fact that Austin scored 10 of her squad’s 20 points in the final frame. The Mystics were also aided by the worst offensive quarter Seattle had in the game as the offense only hit four shots from the field and three of its attempts from the charity stripe.

The third quarter was a back and forth affair that ended with a 68-64 lead for Seattle. Jade Melbourne hit a layup with 5:25 left in the third to kick off a 10-2 run for the Storm that gave them a 61-52 lead. But a Kiki Iriafen layup ended Washington’s two minute scoreless drought; Iriafen’s bucket kicked off a the Mystics’ own 10-2 run that made it 63-61 with 43.8 seconds left in the quarter. Both squads would then preceded to trade buckets until the clock zeroed out and the game headed into its final quarter.

An 8-1 run in the final three minutes of the second quarter gave Seattle a 45-40 lead at the halftime buzzer as Melbourne’s attempted buzzer beater bounced harmlessly off the rim. That run was fueled by incredible a balanced offensive attack along with excellent defensive boards that took away second chance opportunities for the Mystics – the Storm had 16 defensive rebounds, compared to Washington’s 10 in the first half. The offense saw Holmes, Heideman, Melbourn, and Fam score in that final run before the half.

Seattle had entered the second quarter with a 24-18 lead before Shakira Austin hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead down to four. A Stefanie Dolson three pushed the Storm’s lead up to seven, but an 8-2 run cut their lead down to two. After a series of buckets for both squads, Washington would tie it up with an Austin jump shot at 33.

The two squads would trade the lead and buckets until the Storm went on their 8-1 run to close out the half.

In the first frame, it was all Storm at first as they opened the game up with 10-4 run. While the Mystics were able to cut their deficit down to two with 6:03 left in the quarter, Seattle was able to push its lead out to eight thanks to an 8-0 run. Washington’s offense struggled to find any consistency as they chucked up contested shots and Seattle pulled in the loose balls.

Washington was unable to get the first quarter score within a single possession after the Storm had taken a 16-8 lead in the frame. Seattle took a 24-18 score into the first break.

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