Balanced Mystics Beat Sky, 75-64

In a game in which they led by as many as 17 points, the Washington Mystics beat the Chicago Sky, 75-64, Thursday night at Verizon Center.

The Mystics balanced their scoring well: Crystal Langhorne finished with 16 points, Lindsay Harding had 15 and Matee Ajavon scored 14. Langhorne also added 10 rebounds for Washington. Ten Mystics scored in all, and the team shot 46.4 percent on the night.

The Mystics made a statement, all-star point guard Alana Beard said. The Mystics (8-7), who came into Thursday only a half-game ahead of the Sky for third place in the Eastern Conference, now have more of a cushion against Chicago (8-10).

Beard ticked off the reasons why the win was important: "It's a statement game, one, because it's our only time on TV, so everyone's taking notice, and secondly, and most importantly, we broke the tie. We have the tiebreaker between Chicago if it comes down to it."

The Mystics dominated from early in the first quarter. After Chicago jumped out to a 6-2 lead, Langhorne went to work. After a Monique Currie jumper, Langhorne scored on back-to-back possessions to give the Mystics the lead with 5 minutes 16 seconds remaining in the first quarter. The Sky never led again.

Washington took a 38-24 lead at halftime, boosted by 47.2 percent shooting and excellent defense. In the first half, the Mystics forced 10 Chicago turnovers and held the Sky to 9-for-30 shooting. The team finished with six steals, four by Beard.

"We kept hitting back defensively," Beard said. "It was very hard for their post players to get anything in the paint because of what our post players did tonight."

The Mystics struggled with turnovers in the second half. After committing 20 miscues in a loss to Indiana on Tuesday, Washington had 10 turnovers in the last 20 minutes of the game and finished with 14 overall.

But Chicago struggled to score all night. The Mystics contested the Sky's every shot, and the visitors could not find a rhythm around the basket. Their shooting percentage at the end of three quarters was only 30.6 percent and only marginally improved early in the fourth quarter. By the time Ajavon hit back-to-back threes, with 5:42 left, the Mystics had all but guaranteed that the game would be a win.

"I just had a scoring mentality," Ajavon said. "We couldn't lose this game, so I was trying to be as aggressive as I could."

It was the first game in which both Langhorne and Marissa Coleman played against their former Maryland teammate Kristi Toliver, who is a rookie point guard with the Sky. Toliver received a warm welcome from the home crowd of 11,651 and finished with nine points.

"Especially [for] as long as her and I played together, our four years, it was weird going up against her," Coleman said. "Instead of being on the same team and trying to win together, we were trying to beat each other."

The win was a big one for the team heading into Saturday's all-star game in Uncasville, Conn. The Mystics have a game against Sacramento the next day, and are looking to carry the momentum from this win into the weekend.

"We have to continue to build," Beard said. "I thought we had an excellent defensive game tonight and I think we'll carry it over to the next game. Sacramento is a very good team, but we have to win two in a row."