Shakira Austin made 4 free throws in the final 18 seconds, and the Washington Mystics held on to beat the Toronto Tempo 68-65 on Friday in Toronto's expansion debut.
Shakira Austin made 4 free throws in the final 18 seconds and the Washington Mystics held on to beat the Toronto Tempo 68-65 on Friday night at Coca-Cola Coliseum, spoiling the expansion franchise's first game.
Sonia Citron led Washington with 26 points on 9-of-12 shooting. Austin added 18 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 assists. Kiki Iriafen finished with 12 points and a game-high 16 rebounds.
Austin sank 2 free throws with 18 seconds remaining to put Washington ahead 66-65, then added 2 more with 11 seconds left.
Marina Mabrey led Toronto with 27 points and 7 rebounds. Brittney Sykes added 14 points but missed a potential go-ahead 3-pointer with 14 seconds to play. The Tempo shot 27% from the field and went 5-of-25 from 3-point range.
Washington led by as many as 9. Toronto's biggest lead of the night was 2.
Citron shot 9-of-12 from the field, 3-of-6 from 3-point range, and 5-of-8 from the free-throw line in 34 minutes. She added 2 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.
Austin finished 6-of-13 from the field and 6-of-10 from the free-throw line in just under 28 minutes. She also recorded 11 rebounds, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.
After Sykes missed a 3-pointer with 14 seconds remaining that would have given Toronto the lead, Austin's pair of free throws with 11 seconds to play stretched the Mystics' margin to 3.
Iriafen pulled down 16 rebounds — 12 of them defensive — to go with 12 points, 2 assists, and 1 block on 5-of-9 shooting. She was assessed a flagrant 1 foul with 5:07 remaining in the fourth quarter.
Mabrey shot 6-of-18 from the field but knocked down 12-of-14 free throws to finish with 27 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists. Sykes shot 4-of-18 from the field and 0-of-5 from 3-point range but went 6-of-9 from the free-throw line.
Sykes hit the Tempo's first shot of the game, a pull-up jumper from the free-throw line, for the franchise's first points.
After Cassandre Prosper opened the scoring with a layup for Washington, Sykes' jumper drew a roar from the sellout crowd of 8,210.
New Dallas Mavericks president Masai Ujiri, the longtime former Toronto Raptors executive and a member of Tempo's ownership group, sat at center court. Current Raptors Immanuel Quickley and Sandro Mamukelashvili, former Raptors big man Serge Ibaka, and Canadian soccer star Christine Sinclair also attended.
The crowd sang along to a Shania Twain song during a Karaoke Cam segment in the fourth quarter.
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