Mystics vs. Fever: Sonia Citron's Career-High 30 Beats Caitlin Clark's 32 in a 104-102 OT Thriller

Caitlin Clark had just done the thing. Down 89-86 with regulation almost gone, she let one fly from 27 feet, it dropped, and 15,673 people inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse lost whatever composure they had left. Sonia Citron then swished a shot from half court at the other end, except she still had the ball when the buzzer sounded, so it counted for nothing except foreshadowing.

Overtime belonged to her. Citron scored five of her career-high 30 points in the extra period and set up two more baskets, Kiki Iriafen finished with 25 and 13, and the Washington Mystics beat the Indiana Fever 104-102 on Friday night in a game that refused to end until Kelsey Mitchell's contested 2 from the left corner missed as time expired.

A Game With Three Different Plots

It started as a Fever shooting exhibition. Indiana hit 6 of 7 from deep in the first quarter, opened up a 26-13 lead on the way to 28-21, and looked like it might run Washington out of the state. Then came the most bizarre stretch of the night. The Mystics poured in 14 straight in the second, flipping a 30-21 deficit into a 35-30 lead, and held Indiana to nine points in the quarter. Nine, from the team that had 28 a few minutes earlier. Washington took a 41-37 lead into the break.

The third quarter went even better for the visitors. Consecutive runs of 8-0 and 9-0 pushed the lead to 65-51, and Aliyah Boston left with two minutes remaining in the period with a lower leg injury and did not return. At 67-58 after three, a road team with a rookie making her debut was in full control.

Then Clark took the game personally. The Fever opened the fourth on a 12-2 tear, with three of her 3s in the mix, and turned that nine-point hole into a 70-69 lead in a little over three minutes. Washington answered with eight straight to go up 83-76 with 1:41 left, and it seemed like the Mystics had survived. They had not. Clark hit from 29 feet. Mitchell hit a 28-foot running jumper. Myisha Hines-Allen got to the line and made it 87-86. Citron answered with two free throws, and then Clark, off a Hines-Allen feed, tied it.

Career Nights Everywhere You Looked

Citron was the best player on the floor when it counted. She went 10 of 14 from the field and 9 of 10 at the line with six rebounds and four assists, and at 22, the Mystics say, no player in franchise history has been younger when recording a 30-point game. Iriafen shot 11 of 17 and pulled down a game-high 13 boards. That makes three straight double-doubles to start the year. According to the team, no one else in Mystics history has opened a season that way, and no one else in WNBA history has done it before turning 23.

Shakira Austin went for 19 points, nine rebounds, five assists and three blocks. Rookie Cotie McMahon scored 13 with five rebounds in her WNBA debut, which the team says makes her just the second player in franchise history with 10 or more points and five or more rebounds in a first game.

As for Clark, she scored 32 on 10-of-28 shooting with seven 3s, and 17 of those points came in the fourth. The Fever's notes say her five 3s in that quarter are a new team record for most by a single player in a quarter, and the 17 points tie for second-most by a single player in a quarter in Fever history. Mitchell added 24 but needed 25 shots to get there. Clark finished plus-14 in a two-point loss, which is the kind of number that explains itself.

McMahon, From Way Out

Overtime was a track meet: 28 combined points in five minutes, with neither side able to get a stop that mattered. Washington nudged ahead 95-91 on a Citron drive, and Indiana kept pulling within a point, first at 97-96 on Mitchell's 27-foot step-back and then at 99-98 on a Clark basket.

The shot that swung it came from the least likely person in the building. With 1:42 left, McMahon, in her very first WNBA game, took a Citron pass and buried a 25-foot running jumper for 102-98. Mitchell then missed two free throws in the last minute, and those misses loomed even larger when Lexie Hull's 26-foot 3 made it 103-102 in the closing seconds. Citron made one at the line to restore the two-point cushion, and Mitchell's final look would not fall.

Stats That Matter

• 58-28: Washington's advantage in the paint. The Mystics say those 58 are a franchise record, and it was the entire story of how you beat a team that makes it rain.
• 17 of 42: Indiana from 3-point range, compared with 6 of 16 for Washington, a 33-point difference from deep that somehow was not enough.
• 56 to 39: Field goal percentage in Washington's favor. The Fever needed 92 shots to make 36.
• 27: Points Indiana scored off 21 Mystics turnovers. Washington gave it away constantly and survived anyway.
• 44-29: The Mystics' edge on the glass, with 36 of those on the defensive end.

Two Home Games, Two Heartbreaks

The Mystics are 2-1 overall and 2-0 on the road, with their four-game trip continuing at Dallas on Monday. The Fever fall to 1-2 and, more painfully, 0-2 at home, with both losses coming by a single possession: 107-104 to Dallas in the opener and now this. Seattle visits on Sunday to continue a run of four straight home games, and Boston's lower leg will be the first thing anyone in Indianapolis asks about.

Clips Versus Columns

Clark's fourth quarter will live on every phone in America for the next week, and it should. A 27-foot equalizer in front of 15,673 people is what the league's marketing department dreams about. But the Mystics scored 58 points in the paint, grabbed 15 more rebounds and shot 17 percentage points better. The internet will remember the 3. The standings will remember the layups.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press. Records and team notes from the Washington Mystics and Indiana Fever team recaps.