Liberty Fall to the Mystics
The Liberty opened the game with a 4-2 lead, but that would be the end of positivity for New York Tuesday. A 13-2 run for the Mystics quickly put the Liberty down big, and by the end of the quarter New York trailed by 11 points. As a team, the Liberty made just five of 16 shots in the opening quarter, with good looks as the basket rimming out repeatedly.
A 10-0 Washington run to open the second quarter sapped the energy out of the Liberty. New York didnt connect on its first field goal of the quarter until 4:02 remaining in the half. The Liberty had missed their first 10 field goal attempts of the quarter and had gone nearly nine minutes without a basket before Tina Charles finally ended the drought. The bucket by Charles opened up the New York offense for the final minutes of the half, but the Liberty still trailed by 15 when the horn sounded. The story of the first half could be accurately portrayed by the teams field goal percentages. New York shot just 29.7 percent, while Washington was a blistering 51.7 percent from the field.
The Liberty got off to a fast start in the second half, but Mystics guard Ivory Latta quickly closed the door on the New York comeback attempt. Latta connected on back-to-back deep triples as part of a 12-0 Washington run to give the Mystics their then-largest lead of the game at 26 points. The deficit reached 29 points by the end of the quarter, with New York making just three field goals in the period.
The end of the Liberty bench soaked up minutes in the fourth quarter, as Washington continued to build its lead through the final buzzer. Essence Carson made the most of her playing time, scoring four points and grabbing three rebounds in the final period.
Charles led the way for New York, finishing the night the only double-figures scorer with 10 points. The team shot just 28.8 percent from the floor and scored a season-low 46 points. The Mystics utilized balanced scoring, with four players scoring more than 10 points.
The Liberty will try to get back on track this Friday when the team returns home to face the Connecticut Sun at 7:30 at Madison Square Garden.