Mystics vs. Wings: Shakira Austin's 27 Fuels 20-Point Comeback and Washington's Fifth Straight Win

The Washington Mystics did not hold a lead for the first 37 minutes on Wednesday night. It turns out they only needed the last three.

Down 20 late in the third quarter at CareFirst Arena, Washington came all the way back to beat the Dallas Wings 96-92 for its fifth straight win. Shakira Austin was a monster, piling up 27 points and 13 boards. Rookie Cotie McMahon saved 10 of her 18 for the fourth. And a Dallas team that had spent three quarters shooting like it owned the place managed just 12 points when it mattered most.

Dallas Was Cruising, Until It Very Much Was Not

For a long stretch, this looked like a road clinic. Dallas dropped 31 in the first quarter and 28 in the second, and a 9-0 run late in the second turned a 46-42 game into 55-42. It was 59-44 at the half. Jessica Shepard was carving Washington up inside, Alanna Smith was everywhere, and the Wings kept finding each other in transition on their way to 18 fast-break points.

Another 9-0 burst in the third moved the score to 73-54, and when it hit 76-56 with three minutes left in the period, plenty of people in the building were probably checking the Metro schedule. Washington was still down 80-61 with 1:43 left in the third. Then the Mystics scored 13 straight, spilling over into the fourth, to make it 80-74.

Dallas steadied itself for a moment and got back to 86-74. It did not matter. Washington ripped off 12 more in a row between the 6:43 and 3:38 marks, with Michaela Onyenwere scoring twice in 16 seconds and McMahon tying it at 86 from the line.

Smith's running layup put Dallas back ahead, but McMahon scored through contact at 3:00 and finished the three-point play for an 89-88 lead, Washington's first of the night. Sonia Citron followed with a floater and a driving layup to make it 93-88. Arike Ogunbowale's free throws pulled Dallas within three, a foul call against Washington got overturned with 33.2 seconds left, and McMahon's 5-foot turnaround at 11.4 made it 95-90. Paige Bueckers scored once more, Citron hit a free throw, and that was finally that.

Austin Anchored It, McMahon Lit the Fuse

Austin was the constant through all of it. She went 9 of 15 from the field and 8 of 9 at the line, pulled down 11 defensive rebounds and logged 36 minutes. By the Mystics' count, that makes 12 double-doubles this season and back-to-back games of 25-plus points and 10-plus boards, and her lone block was enough to pull her even for fifth on the franchise's career list.

McMahon was the spark. She came off the bench to score 18, a career high according to the team, on 6-of-10 shooting and 6-of-8 at the line, and finished plus-13 in 27 minutes. Citron shot just 4 of 11 but got all her biggest buckets when they counted, and Georgia Amoore scored all 12 of her points on 3s. Onyenwere finished with 10 points and six fouls in 19 minutes, went plus-21, the best mark on either team, and reached 1,500 career points. Kiki Iriafen added 11.

Dallas deserves more than a footnote. Shepard was absurd for 37 minutes: 22 points on 11-of-13 shooting, 11 rebounds and seven assists for what the Associated Press counted as her 20th double-double of the season. Smith added 21 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks, though she missed four of her five free throws. Bueckers had 17 with no turnovers, Ogunbowale scored 15, and Azzi Fudd added nine.

The 2:21 That Changed the Night

The first run is the one that mattered. A 19-point lead in the final two minutes of a quarter is supposed to be safe, and it stopped being safe in the span of 2:21. Dallas sat frozen on 80 while Washington went from 61 to 74, and a game that had felt over became a game with a pulse. All that momentum carried straight into the fourth, when the Mystics attacked inside and lived at the line while the Wings' offense went stale.

Starting from that 80-61 score, Washington outscored Dallas 35-12 over the final 11:43. Read that again. A team that had scored 80 points in about 28 minutes then got 12 in nearly 12.

Stats That Matter

• 35-12: Washington's scoring edge over the final 11:43.
• 12: Dallas' fourth-quarter points, after scoring at least 21 in every other period.
• 22 of 26 vs. 15 of 21: Free throws, with the Mystics making seven more.
• 48-36: Washington's edge in the paint.
• Six: Mystics in double figures, which the team says ties a franchise record.

What It Means

Washington is now 17-12 and 9-6 at home, and the streak has real substance: at Golden State, then wins over Las Vegas, Connecticut and Dallas twice. The team counts this as its fourth 20-point comeback win ever and its fifth double-digit comeback of the season, and the victory also locked up a third straight season-series win over the Wings. Atlanta comes to town on Friday.

Dallas fell to 19-12 and 10-7 on the road, having lost three of its last four, with the two defeats in Washington coming five days apart. The Wings return home to host Golden State on Friday at American Airlines Center, and they will have some film to get through first.

Delete the Draft

Somewhere around the middle of the third quarter, Dallas had every right to start drafting the easy version of this story: hot shooting, a big lead, a comfortable road win on a Wednesday. The Mystics hit delete. Five straight wins is nice, but what makes this team interesting at this moment is the way it keeps refusing to accept what the scoreboard is telling it. A franchise that had pulled this off only three times before from 20 down just did it with a rookie and a center leading the charge. That is not a fluke so much as a personality.

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