\u201cI didn\u2019t even know that was allowed,\u201d 22-year-old guard Sonia Citron<\/a> told reporters postgame.<\/p>\n Sunday\u2019s game had 21 ties and 12 lead changes, and more than half of each came in overtime. The Mystics needed to score the most points in franchise history<\/a> to win by the narrowest of margins.<\/p>\n \u201cThank you, God, the game is over,\u201d forward Kiki Iriafen<\/a> thought to herself as the final buzzer sounded.<\/p>\n At times, it felt like the game would never end. The Mystics led by as many as 12 points in the opening six minutes, but the Fire promptly erased that and led by 3 after the first quarter. Portland stretched its lead to 9 in the second quarter, but the Mystics fought back to take a 1-point lead with 1:36 left in regulation. That was their first lead in nearly three full quarters.<\/p>\n But Portland had an answer in the form of guard Carla Leite<\/a>, who banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.<\/p>\n The game went back and forth through the overtime periods. Leite hit another game-tying shot late in the first overtime to force a second overtime, a layup from Citron prompted a third, and a midrange jumper from Portland guard Bridget Carleton<\/a> forced a fourth. Finally in the fourth overtime, Leite missed a 6-foot floater as time expired and a layup from Citron with 21.4 seconds left stood up as the game-winner.<\/p>\n Related reading:<\/strong> Fire\u2019s historic 4OT loss offered lessons for the future \u2014 and hope<\/a><\/p>\n Though the game took its toll on players both mentally and physically, it was a better learning opportunity for the Mystics than anything Johnson could\u2019ve dreamed of. They are the second-youngest team<\/a> in WNBA history, with an average age of 23.5 years old<\/a> as of Sunday. Johnson has talked often about how the biggest thing his team needs<\/a> right now is game reps and how those reps go into players\u2019 \u201cmemory bank\u201d for the future. And instead of getting 40 minutes of reps and lessons for the future on Sunday, the Mystics got 60.<\/p>\n \u201cThe best way to learn is just going through it,\u201d said Citron, who came to the postgame press conference with scratches on her arms and a bag of ice on her knee. \u201c\u2026 We\u2019re kind of getting thrown into the fire, but \u2026 I think we\u2019ll just be better for it in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n Three Mystics set career highs in scoring<\/a> in the win: Citron had 32 points, wing Michaela Onyenwere<\/a> had 30 and Iriafen had 27. That made Citron and Onyenwere the first pair of Mystics ever to score 30 or more points in the same game, per Mystics PR. But it didn\u2019t always look like Citron would get close to that: With six minutes left in regulation, Citron had just 7 points before scoring 25 in the game\u2019s final 26 minutes.<\/p>\n Citron ended up playing a game-high 52 minutes and 33 seconds, the sixth-most minutes played<\/a> in a game in WNBA history. She did not sub out at all after the third quarter.<\/p>\n In addition, center Shakira Austin<\/a> set a career high and Iriafen tied her career high in assists<\/a> with six each. They also combined for 24 rebounds, often coming up with the ball in crowds to give the Mystics more possessions. One particularly important rebound came with about 30 seconds left in the third overtime. Iriafen read the path of the shot and moved out of her area to steal a rebound from Fire forward Frieda B\u00fchner<\/a>. Then, with three Fire players surrounding her, she avoided being tied up and drew a foul.<\/p>\n \u201cKiki\u2019s a beast,\u201d Onyenwere told reporters postgame. \u201cI was telling her, I was like, \u2018Girl, we wouldn\u2019t have won if you didn\u2019t get all those rebounds.\u2019 She just kept us in plays, kept us in possessions. There was times where there was two, three people hanging on her, and she was the one who came up with the ball. \u2026 She\u2019s just such a vital piece for what we\u2019re trying to do, and everything that we\u2019re trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n Another player Onyenwere said the Mystics couldn\u2019t have won without was rookie point guard Alicia Fl\u00f3rez<\/a>. Fl\u00f3rez didn\u2019t play at all in the first half, but after starter Georgia Amoore<\/a> left the game midway through the second quarter with knee soreness<\/a>, Fl\u00f3rez played 33:45, including all but 15 seconds of the four overtimes. The former developmental player<\/a> finished with 8 points on 4-for-7 shooting, five steals, four assists, three rebounds and a block.<\/p>\n Perhaps the biggest play Fl\u00f3rez made came with about two minutes left in the first overtime, shortly after the Fire had taken the largest lead they\u2019d have in any overtime period at 4 points. Iriafen had made a driving layup to cut the deficit to 2, and on the ensuing Fire possession, the ball got knocked loose in the paint. Leite got it and tried to pass it out to the perimeter from her knees, but Fl\u00f3rez chased after the ball, dove on the floor to secure it before a Portland player could pick it up, and popped it up to Onyenwere, who started a two-on-one fast break that Citron finished.<\/p>\n \u201cWe don\u2019t necessarily ever signal Player of the Game or anything like that, but we definitely gave [Alicia] a shoutout after the game,\u201d Johnson said. \u201c\u2026 From the moment she\u2019s gotten here, she\u2019s played like a warrior.\u201d<\/p>\n Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women\u2019s Sports Daily<\/strong> It took a lot for a young team to stay focused for over 3 1\/2 hours \u2014 nearly twice the length of a typical basketball game. Part of the motivation was ending the team\u2019s two-game losing streak, but another part was not having all its effort count for nothing on the scoreboard.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like we worked too hard to let the game slip away,\u201d Iriafen told The IX Basketball afterward.<\/p>\n Onyenwere\u2019s and Citron\u2019s voices were the most frequent in the huddles as the game wore on, encouraging their teammates to keep pushing, Johnson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI usually don\u2019t ever shut up in timeouts, so I just was trying to just keep us afloat,\u201d Onyenwere said. \u201cI mean, I think that we knew we needed to win this game. We obviously had dropped a couple that we felt like we wanted back a little bit, and \u2026 it was so close at the end. It\u2019s like, \u2018Why not us? Why not go and get it?\u2019 So yeah, I just tried to keep everybody\u2019s spirits up and, yeah, go get the game.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cTheir togetherness was off the charts,\u201d Johnson said. \u201c\u2026 That connection and feeling towards each other \u2014 real affection there \u2014 I think that added a little bit of wind to their sails, because I\u2019m not sure how else we could get it done.\u201d<\/p>\n As the overtimes mounted, though, you could see the toll the game was taking. Iriafen bent over at the waist after the buzzer sounded to end the second overtime. After the third overtime, which ended with Citron missing a 3-pointer at the buzzer, Citron puffed her cheeks out, and Fl\u00f3rez put her hands on her head.<\/p>\n Neither team could score for the first 2:24 of the fourth overtime, as players\u2019 legs turned to jelly. \u201cOh my gosh, my legs hurt,\u201d Onyenwere exclaimed in the Mystics\u2019 celebratory video<\/a> just after the game ended.<\/p>\n Every time the Mystics scored in the last few overtime periods, the crowd seemed to cheer like it was letting out a deep breath with every scream. That was especially true as the Mystics made a final, nerve-wracking defensive stand in the fourth overtime, getting Leite to miss her first shot in three tries with the game on the line. Fl\u00f3rez put both her fists in the air, then bent over, resting her hands on her knees.<\/p>\n The players slowly moved toward halfcourt, where they usually huddle after home games. They wrapped their arms around one another in a tighter circle than usual, seemingly holding one another upright.<\/p>\n \u201cWe just did like a group hug,\u201d Citron said. \u201cI don\u2019t think we even had energy to yell [or] celebrate. It was just like a, \u2018It\u2019s finally over.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Your business can reach over 3 million women\u2019s sports fans every single month!<\/strong><\/p>\n Here at The IX Basketball<\/a> and The IX Sports<\/a>, our audience is a collection of the smartest, most passionate women\u2019s sports fans in the world. If your business has a mission to serve these fans, reach out to our team at BAlarie@theixsports.com<\/a> to discuss ways to work together.<\/p>\n When the huddle dispersed, guard\/forward Darianna Littlepage-Buggs<\/a>, Amoore and point guard Rori Harmon<\/a> found Fl\u00f3rez to praise her efforts. Then Iriafen came over and, recognizing how exhausted Fl\u00f3rez was, gave her a piggyback ride<\/a> to the locker room so she wouldn\u2019t have to walk. As Iriafen hoisted Fl\u00f3rez on her back, Iriafen let out a triumphant scream.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m someone who loves to lift up my teammates \u2014 like, physically, too,\u201d Iriafen said. \u201cAnd that makes me so happy, just pouring into them. [Alicia] has been great, and \u2026 when [the coaches] said, \u2018Li, we need you,\u2019 she was there. \u2026<\/p>\n \u201cI just want to be a teammate that all my teammates can rely on and know that regardless, Kiki\u2019s always going to show you love and pour into you. So that was fun, and I love picking up people. So, bonus.\u201d<\/p>\n That gesture was a prime example of the togetherness Johnson loved seeing in his team \u2014 that Iriafen could play nearly 48 minutes of extremely physical basketball, figuratively carry the team in stretches, and still have the energy and desire to literally put a teammate on her back for another minute or two.<\/p>\n From there, it was time to start the recovery process. Asked how many ice baths they\u2019d take after their press conference, Onyenwere sighed and looked over at Citron.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot,\u201d Onyenwere said.<\/p>\n Monumental Sports and Entertainment, the group that owns the Washington Mystics, holds a minority stake in The IX Basketball. The IX Basketball\u2019s editorial operations are entirely independent of Monumental and all other business partners.<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 With eight rookies on the roster, Washington Mystics head coach Sydney Johnson has gotten used to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":902724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[49],"tags":[365530,260071,34429,112406,61008,60094,365531,12795,34428,62,71570,52481,67,132,68,1514,232],"class_list":["post-902723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-alicia-florez","tag-carla-leite","tag-kiki-iriafen","tag-michaela-onyenwere","tag-overtime","tag-portland-fire","tag-quadruple-overtime","tag-shakira-austin","tag-sonia-citron","tag-sports","tag-sydney-johnson","tag-team-chemistry","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-washington-mystics","tag-wnba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116838226297003512","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902723","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=902723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Washington](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2026-06-28T201547Z_1043604711_MT1USATODAY29290356_RTRMADP_3_WNBA-PORTLAND-FIRE-AT-WASHINGTON-MYSTICS.jpeg\")
Washington Mystics forward Michaela Onyenwere (12) shoots a layup during a game against the Portland Fire at CareFirst Arena in Washington, D.C., on June 28, 2026. (Photo credit: Rafael Suanes | Imagn Images)<\/p>\n
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We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women\u2019s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women\u2019s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!<\/p>\n![\"Washington](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/2026-06-28T232427Z_986939174_MT1USATODAY29291379_RTRMADP_3_WNBA-PORTLAND-FIRE-AT-WASHINGTON-MYSTICS-.jpeg\")
Washington Mystics guard Alicia Fl\u00f3rez (2) reacts after defeating the Portland Fire in quadruple overtime at CareFirst Arena in Washington, D.C., on June 28, 2026. (Photo credit: Rafael Suanes | Imagn Images)<\/p>\n