Mystics vs. Storm: Shakira Austin's 18 and 13 Power Wire-to-Wire 78-64 Win Over Seattle

Three days earlier, Seattle hung 97 on the Washington Mystics in this same building. On Wednesday night, the Storm spent an entire quarter scoring nine.

Shakira Austin piled up 18 points, 13 rebounds and five assists, Michaela Onyenwere came back with 14 in her season debut, and Washington never trailed in a 78-64 win at Climate Pledge Arena. It was the Mystics' largest win of the season. For Seattle, it was the lowest point total of the year, which is quite a turnaround from Sunday's 97-85 fireworks show.

Twelve-Two, Then the Lights Went Out

Onyenwere had missed the start of the season while the team managed a left knee injury, and she did not ease back in. She hit two early 3s and scored eight points during a 12-2 opening burst that set the tone for everything after. A later 8-0 run stretched it to 23-9, and although Seattle pushed back with nine straight to make it 23-18, Washington still carried a 28-20 lead out of the first.

Lexie Brown's 3 with 7:48 left in the half pulled the Storm within 32-25, and that was the last good news for a while. Seattle did not score again until Zia Cooke's driving layup at the 1:08 mark. In between, Washington piled up 12 unanswered to make it 44-25, and the Mystics took a 48-29 lead to the locker room.

The Storm did try. Jade Melbourne's back-to-back layups sparked an 8-0 run to start the third, trimming it to 48-37. Sonia Citron answered with what might have been the quietest important stretch of the night, scoring all seven of her points inside a 13-4 burst that stretched the margin to 20 with 4:03 left in the period. It was 66-45 after three, the margin peaked at 25, and the fourth quarter was mostly paperwork. Washington's last points came on Austin's 6-footer with 4:20 remaining.

Austin Ran the Whole Show

Austin's numbers were loud even without a big scoring night. She shot 6-of-13, went 5-for-5 at the line, and tied her career highs with 13 rebounds and five assists on the way to her third double-double of the season, according to the team. Then there is the detail that might be the most impressive of all: she played 29 minutes and did not commit a single foul. Eleven of those rebounds came on the defensive end, which is why Seattle rarely got comfortable.

Onyenwere's return was just as useful. She played 22 minutes, shot 3-of-7 from deep and finished with the second-most points on the team. Kiki Iriafen added 13 points and nine rebounds on 5-of-7 shooting and finished a game-best plus-15, even with five fouls. Then there was the surprise of the night: Alicia Florez, signed to a developmental contract on May 7, made her WNBA debut and put up nine points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals in 23 minutes. Georgia Amoore made 2 of 3 shots for seven points, and Lauren Betts went 4-for-4 at the line for six of her own in 11 minutes, so the scoring came from all over the rotation.

Melbourne was the one bright spot for Seattle, with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting. Mackenzie Holmes had eight points and a career-high 10 rebounds, and Katie Lou Samuelson scored eight off the bench. The rest of the group had a rough night finding the rim: Flau'jae Johnson shot 3-of-13, Natisha Hiedeman 2-of-9 and Cooke 2-of-10, while Stefanie Dolson went scoreless in 20 minutes at minus-20. The Storm again played without Dominique Malonga, who missed her fifth straight game in the concussion protocol.

Six Minutes and 40 Seconds

The turning point came long before anyone wanted to admit it. After Brown's 3 at 7:48 of the second, Seattle went six minutes and 40 seconds without a point. That drought turned a seven-point game into a 19-point game, and it left the Storm with nine points for the quarter. You can recover from a slow start. Recovering from a quarter like that, in front of a home crowd of 9,202, is a much taller order.

Washington won that stretch the way it won the night, with extra possessions and steady shot-making rather than anything flashy. Nobody on the roster scored more than 18, six Mystics finished with at least seven points, and the lead just kept compounding like a savings account nobody in Seattle wanted to open.

Stats That Matter

• Second quarter: Washington 20, Seattle 9. The game was effectively decided here, with 20 minutes still to play.
• Seattle's shooting: 22-of-63 (35%), and 5-of-23 from 3 (22%). Washington was hardly scorching at 42%, but it never needed to be.
• Free throws: Washington 15-of-16. The Mystics made nearly everything at the line, while the Storm went 15-of-19.
• Rebounds: Washington 40, Seattle 31. The Mystics also won the offensive glass 13-12.
• Points off turnovers: Washington 15, Seattle 8. The turnover count was dead even at 12 apiece, but only one team cashed in.

Back to .500

Washington moves to 3-3 after coming in having dropped back-to-back games and three of its last four. All three wins have come on the road, where the Mystics are 3-2. The Storm fall to 3-5 overall and 2-3 at home, and their two-game winning streak is gone. The two teams split their two games in Seattle.

The Mystics host Los Angeles on Friday. The Storm head to Toronto for a Saturday game.

The Reboot Nobody in Seattle Ordered

Hollywood would call this a reboot: same building, same two teams, three days apart, completely different ending. Sunday's version was a shootout. Wednesday's version featured a season debut that lit it up early, a first WNBA game from a developmental signee and a defense that made 97 points feel like a clerical error.

The real headline belongs to the player who never got whistled. Thirteen rebounds, five assists, zero fouls, 29 minutes. Seattle spent the night looking for a way to bother her and never found one.

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