Mystics vs. Sky: Shakira Austin Scores 17, Kiki Iriafen Notches 20th Career Double-Double in 90-72 Win

Kamilla Cardoso blocked six shots on Tuesday night, and the Chicago Sky blocked 10 as a team. In most universes, that's the box score of a winner. In this one, the Washington Mystics kept collecting the misses and trying again until the Sky ran out of answers.

Washington beat Chicago 90-72 at CareFirst Arena, pulling down 17 offensive rebounds and getting a season-high 34 points from its bench. Shakira Austin led the way with 17. Kiki Iriafen's 15 points and 11 rebounds gave her a fourth double-double this season and No. 20 for her career, and the Sky walked out with their fifth straight loss.

No Big Runs, Just Constant Pressure

Here's a strange one for an 18-point game: the play-by-play doesn't show a run of eight or more unanswered points for either team. Washington built this win a few possessions at a time, which might be the most annoying way to lose. There were nine lead changes, Chicago led by as many as five, and the first quarter ended 25-24 Mystics, so for a while this looked like a regular old basketball game.

The Mystics took a 47-40 lead to the half after shooting 55% from the field. Then came the third, a 27-18 Washington quarter that made it 74-58 and pretty much ended the competitive portion of the evening. Austin's layup at 4:57 of the fourth made it 81-59, the biggest lead of the night at 22.

Chicago did make some noise late. Elizabeth Williams finished a three-point play at 4:39, Jacy Sheldon hit a pull-up at 3:23, and after Georgia Amoore's 23-foot three made it 84-65, Skylar Diggins scored five straight on two free throws and a 26-foot pull-up at 1:58. That only got the Sky to 84-70. Lauren Betts and Angela Dugalic answered with baskets of their own, and Betts closed the scoring with a layup off a Rori Harmon feed with 6.3 seconds left.

Austin, Iriafen and the Reserves

Austin's line had a little of everything: 17 points, eight rebounds, three steals and a block on 5-of-13 shooting, with a 1-for-1 night from three and 6 of 9 at the line. She played 25 minutes without committing a foul, which is a nice trick for someone doing that much work around the rim. She did have five turnovers, so nobody's framing the whole thing.

Iriafen shot just 4 of 11 and did most of her damage at the line, going 6 of 10, and on the glass, where three of her 11 boards were offensive. That's a useful thing about being 20 double-doubles into a career: you can have an off shooting night and still end up in the headline. Michaela Onyenwere was the efficiency queen, with 13 points and seven rebounds on 5-of-6 shooting, and her plus-25 in 22 minutes was the best mark in the building. Cotie McMahon scored eight and dished a career-high four assists, per the team.

The bench is what really separated these teams. Dugalic, Betts and Alicia Florez each scored eight, and Cassandre Prosper added seven with five rebounds. Washington did all of it without Sonia Citron, who missed the first game of her WNBA career with a left foot sprain. Losing a player who had never missed a game and getting a season high from your reserves is the kind of thing that tends to earn a team some goodwill in the film room.

For Chicago, Sydney Taylor scored 15 off the bench with four steals and four turnovers, and Diggins got her 14 on just six shots. Cardoso's line was a monster at 12 points, 13 rebounds, six blocks and five assists, and she still finished minus-12. Williams had 10. The rough one belonged to Natasha Cloud, who went 0 for 4 with four turnovers and fouled out in 24 minutes, finishing minus-19.

The Third Quarter and the Glass

Chicago was only down seven at the half, close enough to feel pretty good about itself. Instead, Washington won the third by nine, and the reasons were sitting right there in the box score. Every missed Mystics shot felt like an invitation. Seventeen offensive rebounds meant that even when Cardoso got a hand on something, the Sky still had to go get the ball, and way too often they didn't. You can block 10 shots, but if you're giving up 17 offensive boards, you're paying the mortgage on the same possession twice.

Then there were the giveaways. Chicago turned it over 19 times, and Washington's season-high 11 steals, per the team, fed 24 points the other way. Between the extra shots and the empty Sky trips, the math just kept getting worse with every passing minute.

Stats That Matter

• 46-29: Rebounds. The team says 46 is a season best.
• 17-5: Offensive rebounds, the number that made all those Chicago blocks feel a lot less useful.
• 24-14: Washington's edge in points off turnovers.
• 20 of 32 vs. 10 of 16: Free throws. Both teams shot 63%, but Washington made 10 more.
• 46-38: Washington in the paint, even with 10 blocks coming back at it.

Where They Stand

The Mystics are 4-4 and 1-2 at home, which makes this their first home win of the season. They opened their Commissioner's Cup schedule with it, and the team says it was their largest margin of victory since June 2025. A road game at Atlanta is next on Saturday.

The Sky fall to 3-6 and have lost five straight. All three of their wins have come on the road, where they're 3-2, and they're 0-4 at home. So naturally the next game is at home, against Connecticut on Friday.

Cardoso's Groundhog Day

Chicago spent a lot of Tuesday living inside Groundhog Day: block the shot, watch the ball land in the wrong hands, do it again the next morning, which in this case meant the next possession. At least Bill Murray eventually figured out how to get out of the loop. The Sky have until Friday to learn the same lesson, and the answer isn't more blocks. It's a box-out.

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