Brittney Sykes scored 28 points as the Washington Mystics defeated the visiting Los Angeles Sparks 80-74 to end a five-game losing streak.
Sykes, who missed 12 games with a sprained left foot and didn’t return until after the Olympics break, hit 12 of 20 shots from the floor and added six rebounds and five assists.
Shakira Austin added 14 points and 11 rebounds, including eight points in the fourth quarter, for the Mystics (7-22), who put together a 10-0 run to open the fourth quarter. Ariel Atkins chipped in 15 points.
Rookie Rickea Jackson scored 17 points, but only one after halftime, to lead the Sparks (6-23), who took their sixth straight loss. Dearica Hamby added nine points and 10 rebounds.
Washington trailed 55-54 until Austin scored on a cutting layup, set up by Sykes, to begin the decisive burst with 9:27 left in the game. The two combined again for a bucket less than 30 seconds later. Emily Engstler hit two free throws, Sykes nailed a pull-up jumper and Engstler added a layup for a 64-55 lead with 7:24 to play.
Hamby scored the next three points to get the Sparks within six, but they could get no closer.
Jackson fed Hamby for a layup and then hit one of two free throws to give the Sparks a 48-43 lead with 7:07 left in the third quarter, the biggest margin of the night to that point for either team.
The Mystics came back with a 9-0 run, ignited by back-to-back baskets from Sykes, including a 3-pointer, for a four-point lead, their biggest.
Washington shot 45.2 percent from the floor to just 37.3 percent for Los Angeles.
The Sparks led 41-38 at the half, as neither team could take a lead greater than three points.
Jackson scored seven of Los Angeles’ first nine points on her way to 16 for the half, thanks to 6-for-8 shooting from the floor and making all three of her 3-point attempts.
Sykes countered with 14 for the half, including six straight in the second quarter.
At halftime, Washington welcomed Alana Beard as its fifth member of the team’s Hall of Fame. Beard, whom the Mystics took as the second player overall in the 2004 draft, played her first six seasons for Washington, averaging 16.2 points and 4.2 rebounds.
After injuries kept Beard out of the 2010 and ’11 seasons, she joined the Sparks for eight years before retiring after the 2019 season.
–Field Level Media
