» WNBA Basketball » Mystics Suffer First Home Loss to Indiana, 74-67
Mystics Suffer First Home Loss to Indiana, 74-67
Story by: Richard thomas
Posted June 27, 2008
Photos by: Sol tucker
Washington, DC--
While the Mystics have had nothing but good luck at home, tonight like some say all good things must come to an end, as they suffered their first home loss, 74-67 to the hands of the Indiana Fever, 74-67.
With the loss tonight, the Mystics dropped to 8-6 on the season and by far had one of their worst performances of the year. They had 21 turnovers that were converted into 22 points.
Mystics starting center, Chasity Melvin, the usual workhorse for the team inside the paint could not even find a way to get her name on the scorers sheet with a 0-6 performance from the field and only two rebounds.
"We were short-handed up front because of fouls and that made it very difficult for us to win the game," Adubato said. "When you see Alana Beard, who is a guard, lead our team with 10 rebounds and Chasity has only two, that's not good, said Mystics Head Coach Richie Adubato
"This was a game we should have won and we just gave it away," said Beard, who posted a game-high 24 points and 10 rebounds. "It was just everyone's fault. No one stepped up and took responsibility."
The Mystics had one chance to jump back into the game after Richie Adubato decided to follow the referee Keith Kimble across the floor and express his displeasure to a foul call on Nakia Sanford. After the tirade, the Mystics rallied to tie the game going into the fourth quarter.
The Mystics took a 48-47 lead on Beard's jumper with 6:54 left, but Indiana countered by scoring the next eight points to take a 55-48 lead on a short shot by Tamika Whitmore (team-high 22 points) with 4:57 remaining. The Mystics managed to pull to within 61-58 following Beard's jumper with 1:36 left, but that's as close as they would get. Indiana's Tamika Catchings (15 points) made a three-pointer with 1:04 left to put the game away.
Despite the loss tonight, the Mystics remained in fourth place in the Eastern Conference standings behind leader Connecticut (11-4), Detroit (10-4) and Indiana (11-5).
The Mystics Failed to Grab Anything In the Fourth Quarter