Mystics vs. Lynx: Washington's Late 12-0 Run Stuns Minnesota, 84-79, for a Season-High Third Straight Win

Washington trailed 76-70 with 2:39 left on Sunday night, in Minneapolis, against a team that had just won 13 of its first 16 games. Then Minnesota stopped scoring and the Mystics simply refused to.

Sonia Citron scored 21, Kiki Iriafen added 17 with a go-ahead basket for the second straight game, and the Washington Mystics flipped the game with a late 12-0 run to beat the Minnesota Lynx 84-79 at Target Center. It was a season-high third straight win for Washington, and it came in a game the Mystics led for just 6 percent of the time.

Seventy-Eight Percent of a Lynx Win

Minnesota could not have scripted the start any better. The Lynx scored the game's first eight points before Washington had settled in, and although the Mystics fought back to 22-22 after one, Minnesota ran off 10 straight in the second to turn a 28-28 game into 38-28. It was 42-35 at the half and 60-56 after three, with the home team in front for 78 percent of the game and never really looking bothered.

Citron opened the fourth with a stepback 3, and that started a quarter Washington would win 28-19. The Mystics even edged ahead at 70-69. Then rookie Olivia Miles did what she has done all season, driving for a three-point play with 4:35 left and setting off a 7-0 burst. Natasha Howard scored inside and then hit two at the line, and at 76-70, the crowd of 11,610 had every reason to start thinking about the walk to the parking ramp.

Washington's Rookies and Sophomores

Citron was steady all night, shooting 6-of-13 overall, 2-of-7 from 3 and 7-of-8 from the line while adding three rebounds. The Mystics count this as her fifth 20-point game of the year. Iriafen finished 6-of-11 with seven rebounds and managed to close the game while carrying five fouls, which takes some nerve against a frontline that blocked seven shots.

The biggest jolt came from Cotie McMahon, who had what the team calls a career-high 15 points off the bench. She hit all four of her 3-point attempts, handed out five assists and finished plus-10, and her shot started the comeback. Lauren Betts played only 18 minutes and scored two points, yet she was plus-11. Georgia Amoore had eight points and seven assists, and Washington's bench finished with 26 points against seven for Minnesota's. Sometimes the box score is not subtle.

Miles led everyone with 22 points on 9-of-18 shooting, and she added six assists, five rebounds and two blocks, a real bounce-back after her 1-of-10 game in San Francisco on Friday. Howard had 20 on 9-of-15 shooting and collected five steals, though she also had five turnovers. Courtney Williams scored 13 on 5-of-15, and Kayla McBride scored 12 despite going 3-of-11 from the field. Nia Brodie had just five points, though she blocked four shots and grabbed eight rebounds.

Minnesota did plenty of things that normally win games. The Lynx forced 18 turnovers and scored 26 points off them, collected 11 steals and seven blocks, and took 10 more shots than Washington. They just could not make enough of them, and Washington's 46 percent shooting held up better than anybody's composure in the last three minutes.

The Turning Point: Two and a Half Scoreless Minutes

McMahon's 22-footer off a Citron pass at the 2:14 mark made it 76-73, and at first it looked like just another response. Then Iriafen scored on a layup with 1:04 left to get within one. The Lynx could not get a shot to go, and with 19.3 seconds remaining, Iriafen floated one in off an Amoore feed for a 77-76 lead, her second straight game with a basket like that.

What came next was an avalanche from the foul line. Amoore made one. Iriafen made one. Michaela Onyenwere made one. Citron made two at 6.2 seconds, and the score was 82-76, with Minnesota still stuck on the same number it had reached at 2:39. McBride hit three free throws at 4.8 to make it 82-79, but Citron calmly knocked down two more at 4.3 seconds to finish with four in the final six seconds. All told, the Lynx went more than two and a half minutes without a point when they needed one the most.

Stats That Matter

• 4-of-21: Minnesota from 3, at 19 percent. Washington went 7-of-19, with McMahon responsible for more than half of those.
• 21-of-29: The Mystics at the line. Minnesota took 14 free throws and made 13, but it was called for 25 fouls to Washington's 16.
• 33-27: Washington on the boards, including a 25-20 edge on the defensive glass.
• 26: Bench points for the Mystics, which the team highlighted, and which covered the five-point final margin several times over.
• 0: Washington's fast-break points. The Mystics won this game entirely in the half court.

What It Means

Washington is 8-7 and an impressive 6-4 on the road, with wins over Connecticut, New York and now Minnesota in five days. According to the team, this is the franchise's first three-game winning streak since July 2025. These two meet again Wednesday in Washington, the second of two straight matchups, so the Lynx will not have to wait long for a shot at payback.

Minnesota falls to 13-4, and the three-game winning streak it carried in is over. The odd part of the Lynx's season is now on full display: they are 7-1 on the road and only 6-3 at home. A team this good should not be this much more comfortable in other people's gyms.

Ocean's Twelve

The sequel to Ocean's Eleven is widely regarded as a bit of a mess. Washington's version of twelve was a heist done properly: a rookie to crack the safe, Iriafen to carry the bag out the door, and Citron waiting at the free-throw line with the engine running. Minnesota never even saw the van pull away.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press and the Washington Mystics.