By Owen Murray
The Storm couldn’t close in the fourth quarter against a Mystics group with young stars
The Seattle Storm (13-9) dropped their penultimate game before the All-Star break in a 74-69 loss to the Washington Mystics (11-10) on Sunday. The Mystics, who boast the 2025 third and fourth-overall picks in forwards Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen, rode their young stars to victory alongside a 19-point outing from guard Brittney Sykes.
History, too, was on the line for Seattle star Skylar Diggins (10 points, four assists), who entered Sunday’s game one rebound from eighth place in the all-time WNBA rebounding and 12 points from 1,000 with the Storm.
“Skylar’s a great player, of course — this is my first time playing with her,” newly-acquired guard Tiffany Mitchell said. “Being able to watch her greatness shine, and her ability to make people around her better as well is a skill, and it’s amazing to see what she’s doing.”
Citron, the 2025 No. 3 overall pick, began to heat up early. After a missed 3-point effort inside the first 10 seconds, she laid in the Mystics’ first points of the night on a clean layup; she’d finish with 15 more alongside No. 4 pick Iriafen, who scored 10 and grabbed double-digit rebounds for the seventh time this season. Sykes (19 points, four assists) scored her first points just after Citron.
Washington held every Storm player save Ogwumike without a point until the 2:29 mark in the first quarter, when Diggins made two free throws — and meanwhile built a six-point lead that was only halted when Seattle head coach Noelle Quinn used her first timeout with less than six minutes gone.
“It’s our first quarters,” Quinn said to a question about the Storm’s fourth-quarter efficiency. “It’s setting the tone for us during games, and it’s not a good tone.”
Seattle couldn’t hold off the Mystics on either end: Washington scored 14 of its first 16 points in the paint — where it led the Storm 48-30 at night’s end — and held Seattle to just two there in the first quarter. Ezi Magbegor, who led all scorers with a season-high 19 points, had two blocks in the period but couldn’t hold off her opposite number alone.
“It was their defensive pressure,” Magbegor said. “We talk a lot about points in the paint, and we know when it’s 35-plus, we’re winning games. I think whether it’s the guards getting downhill or having a dominant post presence, it’s really important for us.”
Tiffany Mitchell, who signed with the Storm on July 10, made her impact in a 57-second span in the second quarter that included a turnaround jumper, steal that became a Washington foul and a defensive rebound — the 500th of her career. With 4:22 left in the half, Seattle had a four-point lead, its largest of the game.
“I’m just taking it day-by-day,” Mitchell (12 points in 23:02) said. “I just got here a couple of days ago. It’s low pressure, and Noelle is telling me to be myself — be me, but within the system that was here before me.”
The growth didn’t last. The Storm went scoreless in a crucial period near the end of the half — over three minutes from 5:07 to 2:01 and could only watch the Mystics attack. Washington went 0-4 from the stripe over the next minute, but still tied it with a jump shot and led at the half, 31-28, with the and-1 earned alongside it.
Iriafen (10 points, 10 rebounds) averaged 12.2 points and 8.4 rebounds per game before the matchup; her six double-doubles led all rookies. It was the same story on Sunday, when she earned her seventh with a rebound with 54 seconds to play. No player on the Storm has more than four.
BUT EXPERIENCE PAYS OFF
Diggins scored her first points from the floor, a jumper, with under three minutes gone in the half, then added two more on a second-chance layup minutes later. Iriafen, who picked up her fourth foul with less than five minutes gone in the half, had to watch from the bench.
“She’s an All-Star,” Quinn said. “She’s an Olympian. She’s one of the best players in this league. No matter how the game is going to go, we’re going to lean on our best players to make plays. She’s one of those players.”
She made her 1,635th assist, a cutting backdoor ball to Magbegor with 4:50 left in the quarter — which pushed her past Candace Parker and into ninth place on the WNBA all-time assist board. A high, arcing jumper tossed up minutes later at the shot-clock buzzer gave the Storm their largest lead (five points) to that point of the afternoon.
DIGGINS CLIMBS THE ASSIST CHART
The lead ballooned to eight before the end of the period, when Williams, then Diggins set up Mitchell for back-to-back left-wing 3-point makes and barely-restrained gusto. The buzzer, this time, saved Washington from further harm.
Diggins had other ideas. It took 30 seconds for her to feed Magbegor with another backdoor cut — this one in the shadow between two Mystics defenders — and set the Storm loose again.
MYSTIC DUO HAVE THEIR SAY
Citron had her say, with a catch-and-shoot 3-point make and tough layup over Ogwumike on back-to-back possessions that pushed the Mystics back into the lead. It looked like it wouldn’t be enough when, with 1:10 to play, she got fingers — but not two hands — on a ball that flew past the baseline.
It was Iriafen’s pick that opened the paint for Sykes to strike one more time. Ogwumike skied, but this time, it was her fingertips that couldn’t control the ball.
Diggins got the last chance. She drove for a reverse layup to draw Seattle within one with 1:55 left. Then, two points from 1,000, Seattle’s seven-time All Star had the ball.
On the baseline, she drove. Then, cruelly, her foot slid off the baseline. Not tonight.
“We’re going to continue to lean on her,” Quinn said of the star she named her best player. “No matter what her stats say.”
Seattle stays home to face the Golden State Valkyries on July 16, with tip set for 12:00 PM.
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