Mystics take game one in hopes to sweep the Sun

Photo courtesy of WNBA

 

By Veronica Harris

BarnBurner.ca

 

Toronto. - Can everybody say MYSTICS-MYSTICS-MYSTICS!  The Washington Mystics took charge of game one of the WNBA finals and won, 95-86 over the Connecticut Sun. It wasn’t easy though. The Sun fought hard and gave the ladies in red a run for their money. Although the Sun got off to a slow start (trailing by 13 pts in the 1st quarter), they were within a few points by the time each quarter ended after that.

 

There is a lot of speculation that the Mystics may sweep the Suns and I have two things to say about that. One, let’s not discredit the fact that the Sun are an incredible team and once they get back on home court for game three, this weep talk may be silenced. Two, IF they do sweep-how sweet would that be considering they were swept last year in the finals.

 

If you don’t know the starting lineups of these two teams by this point, I am going to give you two minutes to go google them…

 

(Two minutes pass)

 

Perfect, let’s talk about this game.

 

First it was Ariel Atkins (WAS) with a wide open three ball (thanks to elite passing), then Elena Delle Donne with a nifty fade away and to finish off the 1st quarter was Kristi Toliver with a tough layup ending it in a 12-0 run.

 

On to the second, which means this is Connecticut’s time to shine! Alyssa Thomas had a great second half with put backs, getting rebounds and driving to the net. Thomas ended with 20 pts. The only starter for the Sun’s not to end in double digits were Point Guard Jasmine Thomas, who ended with 7 pts.

 

Fast forward to the 4th quarter where the Sun had cut the lead to 6 pts, first it was Courntey WIlliams (26 pts,5 reb, 5 ast) draining a second chance three ball and then Shekinna Stricklen (13 pts) with another three ball to cut the lead to a single digit. But, guess who?! Your Masked Valuable Player shows up and says” no way, this is our home and we are going to take it”. Delle Donne extends the lead to 11 pts and that is the last time the Suns would get close to the Mystics in this game. Delle Donne contributed a team high 22 pts and 10 reb.

 

There is one player I hadn’t mentioned yet. Can you guess who it is?

 

Fun Fact: This player was born with 50% hearing. She wears hearing devices behind both ears to compensate for her lack of hearing.

 

Emma Meesseman! You didn’t think I’d be able to write about the Mystics and not mention the Finals MVP (in my opinion). Although Emma didn’t have her stat sheet filled, she still showed up where necessary and played her role on the team. In the 4th quarter Meesseman looked as if she was going up for an alley-oop but instead finished with a reverse layup. Meesseman finished with 11 pts.