Allisha Gray scored 19 points and Tina Charles paired 17 points with 15 rebounds as the visiting Atlanta Dream extended the Washington Mystics’ winless start to the season with a 73-67 victory on Wednesday.
Former Mystic Aerial Powers added 12 points off the bench for the Dream (3-2), while Cheyenne Parker-Tyus bundled 10 points with nine boards. Gray shot 7 of 9 from the floor and made four of six 3-pointers. Charles finished 7-of-11.
Rhyne Howard went 2-of-11 from the floor but hit all seven of her free throw attempts for Atlanta, which went 15-of-21 from the line compared to Washington’s 7-of-7 clip.
Ariel Atkins scored 21 points to lead the Mystics (0-7), who are off to their worst start since opening the 2007 season 0-8. Shakira Austin supplied 12 points with nine rebounds and Stefanie Dolson had 10 points.
Neither team led by more than six until the Dream engineered a 10-2 run to build a 67-60 lead with just under three minutes left in the fourth quarter.
Atlanta began its surge when Howard fed a cutting Parker-Tyus for a layup that put the Dream up 59-58 with 7:30 left. Atkins’ pullup that pulled Washington within 63-60 midway through the quarter was the Mystics’ only bucket over nearly an eight-minute span as Atlanta slowly pulled away.
Gray’s jumper from the elbow capped the Dream’s decisive surge with 2:55 to play. Julie Vanloo ended Washington’s field goal drought with her only basket, a 3-pointer that made it 71-65 with 35.1 seconds left.
Howard made four free throws in the final minute to seal the win for Atlanta.
Gray had eight points on 3-of-3 shooting less than two minutes in as the Dream controlled the game’s early stages, opening a 15-9 lead midway through the first quarter.
The Mystics soon found their stroke and pulled ahead 18-17 on Karlie Samuelson’s 3-pointer from the left wing. Aaliyah Edwards and Myisha Hines-Allen added buckets for Washington to power a 13-3 run that propelled the Mystics into the second quarter leading 22-18.
Atlanta finished the second quarter far stronger than it did the first.
Gray drilled two triples during the Dream’s 10-0 run over the half’s final three minutes to flip their six-point deficit into a 38-34 halftime lead.
Washington opened the second half with a 10-2 spurt to go up 44-40 before Powers hit two treys for Atlanta late in the third quarter to level the game at 54 entering the final period.
–Field Level Media