{"id":1003597,"date":"2026-08-16T02:36:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T02:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1003597\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T02:36:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T02:36:23","slug":"sparks-suffer-their-fourth-straight-loss-after-mystics-rally","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1003597\/","title":{"rendered":"Sparks suffer their fourth straight loss after Mystics rally"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Sonia Citron scored 21 points, Shakira Austin had 17 points and 11 rebounds, and the Washington Mystics rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat the Sparks 80-70<\/a> on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

Former USC star Kiki Iriafen added 19 points and eight rebounds for Washington (20-14), which was coming off two straight losses at Las Vegas. Citron had eight assists and six rebounds.<\/p>\n

Austin\u2019s layup with six minutes left in the fourth quarter gave Washington a 65-64 lead, its first advantage since it was 41-39 at halftime. With three minutes left, Citron hit a three-pointer for a 74-69 lead and the Mystics closed it out with a 9-1 run.<\/p>\n

Washington outscored the Sparks 25-12 in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Rae Burrell<\/a> scored 20 points, Nneka Ogwumike<\/a> had 15 and Dearica Hamby<\/a> added 11 for the Sparks (12-22).<\/p>\n

The Sparks led 26-24 one minute into the second quarter before Washington went on an 11-2 run in the next three minutes to lead 35-28. Two three-pointers from Burrell and one from Erica Wheeler got the Sparks within 41-39 at halftime.<\/p>\n

Wheeler and Burrell opened the second half with back-to-back threes and the Sparks led 52-43 three minutes into the third quarter. The Mystics scored the next eight points and the Sparks held a 58-55 lead heading to the fourth.<\/p>\n

The Mystics had won seven straight before their back-to-back losses to the Aces.<\/p>\n

The Sparks have lost four straight and 11 of 13. Cameron Brink (ribs) did not play, two days after she took a shoulder to the midsection from New York\u2019s Breanna Stewart.<\/p>\n

Up next:<\/b> The Sparks visit Connecticut on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Sonia Citron scored 21 points, Shakira Austin had 17 points and 11 rebounds, and the Washington Mystics rallied…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1003598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[49],"tags":[48329,33353,401797,5615,11148,405,449,10593,24566,12795,34428,5612,4232,62,67,132,68,2058,1514,232],"class_list":["post-1003597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-erica-wheeler","tag-fourth-quarter","tag-fourth-straight-loss","tag-lead","tag-minute","tag-new-york","tag-point","tag-rae-burrell","tag-rebound","tag-shakira-austin","tag-sonia-citron","tag-spark","tag-sparks","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-washington","tag-washington-mystics","tag-wnba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117102863059495658","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1003597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1003597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1003598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1003597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1003597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1003597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}