Mystics vs. Tempo: Sonia Citron's Buzzer-Beater Wins It 86-85 After Marina Mabrey's 18-Point Fourth

Marina Mabrey scored 18 points in the last 3:46 on Friday night, a total that should win just about any basketball game ever played. It didn't, because Washington still had a jump ball and Sonia Citron.

With 2.1 seconds left and the Mystics down one, Lauren Betts got tied up under the basket, won the tip and sent it right to Citron, who faded from 15 feet and beat the buzzer. The Washington Mystics took down the Toronto Tempo 86-85 at CareFirst Arena, and a game that looked over at 79-65 finished as one of the wilder endings you'll see in any league.

Three Quarters of Bully Ball

For most of the night this was a Mystics clinic in the paint with a side of chaos. Washington led 17-14 after one, and Toronto was in front 37-34 late in the second before the home team started a 12-0 run at the 55.6 mark. That run carried across halftime, with the Mystics up 40-37 at the break, and it reached 46-37 with 8:30 left in the third.

A 9-0 burst later in the quarter made it 61-43, Washington's largest lead of the night. It was 65-52 after three, and the formula was obvious. The Mystics were bullying Toronto on the glass and at the rim, and they were getting away with some truly ugly stuff elsewhere: 2-of-18 from 3 and a season-high 22 turnovers. A crowd of 4,200 was settling in for a comfortable Friday.

Then Mabrey Lost Her Mind

Betts scored inside at 3:21 to make it 79-65. By then Mabrey had already started, with a running layup at 3:46. What came next deserves to be read slowly.

She made three free throws at 3:06. She found Maria Conde for a bucket 10 seconds later. She hit a step-back 3 at 2:16. She hit a 26-foot running pull-up at 1:51. She drilled another 3 at 1:16, got fouled and made the free throw. A Georgia Amoore free throw pushed the lead back to 84-80, and Mabrey answered with a 23-footer at 31.6 that made it 84-83.

All 18 of her fourth-quarter points came in that window, while Washington managed only a Betts 18-footer and three free throws after the 3:21 bucket, an offense suddenly gone quiet at the worst possible time. Toronto scored 33 in the quarter, the Mystics' 14-point lead was gone, and when Brittney Sykes drove for a layup with 11.1 seconds left, the Tempo were ahead 85-84. Those were Sykes' only points of the second half, and they should have been the winners.

The Turning Point: A Tip, a Fade, a Zero on the Clock

Washington went inside again, because of course it did. Betts had a great spot deep in the lane and got tied up, and plenty of rookies would be thrilled just to survive that sequence. She controlled the jump instead, tipping it to Citron, who turned and let it go with nothing left on the clock to speak of.

So Betts' final line includes an assist on a jump ball, which you won't see often. It also capped the best game of her young career: a career-high 18 points on 8-of-9 shooting in a career-high 21 minutes off the bench. The Mystics needed every one of them with second-year forward Kiki Iriafen out with an ankle injury.

The Stars and the Asterisk

Citron's line read 17 points, five boards, three assists and two steals, though she needed 16 shots and went 1-of-6 from deep. Michaela Onyenwere also had 17 with a season-high eight rebounds, five of them offensive. Angela Dugalic made her first career start and gave Washington 10 points and six boards.

Shakira Austin is the asterisk. Her 12 points and 11 rebounds made it five double-doubles this season, and she added a career-high nine turnovers, the most by anybody in a WNBA game this season. That's an impressive way to be both a reason you won and a reason you almost didn't. Amoore had seven assists and one point on 0-of-4 shooting, so she contributed in her own way.

For Toronto, Mabrey finished with 27 on 9-of-15 shooting and 5-of-10 from 3. Those five gave her 473 for her career, moving her past Shekinna Stricklen and into 23rd in WNBA history. Sykes had 20, Julie Allemand had nine points and three steals, and Isabelle Harrison added eight points and four steals. The Tempo were also without Nyara Sabally, who sat with a hamstring injury.

Stats That Matter

• 18: Toronto's steals, a season high for the expansion club and the most in the WNBA since 2025, when Seattle had 20.
• 22 to 14: Points off turnovers, Toronto's way, which is how a team outrebounded by 18 stayed within reach of anything.
• 39-21: Washington's rebounding margin, including 15 offensive boards.
• 54 to 40: Points in the paint for the Mystics, who also went 22-of-26 at the line. That's how you survive a 15-point deficit from 3-point range.
• 33-21: Toronto's edge in the fourth quarter.

What It Means

Washington is 5-6 and 2-3 at home, and it snapped a two-game skid. This was also the Mystics' second win over Toronto this season, following a 68-65 result north of the border on May 8, and it evens them at 2-2 in Commissioner's Cup play. Margins of three and one against the same team suggest these two should keep their schedules open for more of this. Washington starts a four-game road trip at New York on Sunday.

Toronto falls to 7-6 and 3-4 on the road after coming in on a two-game winning streak. The Tempo host Atlanta on Sunday, and they'll do so with a pretty good reason to be annoyed.

Who Gets the Credit

Mabrey wrote the entire third act on Friday. She just didn't get the last scene. That's the cruel thing about a shot like Citron's: it works like a post-credits stinger, and nobody leaves the theater talking about anything else.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details from the Associated Press and the Washington Mystics' recap.