June 11, 2008 - The Mystics suffered another heart breaking lost this evening.  This time to the Sacramento Monarchs who rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat the Mystics 79-76.

The game would be a meeting between former University of Maryland's two elite players-turned WNBA rookies, Crystal Langhorne (13 points), and Laura Harper (6 points).

Mystics Monique Curry stepped up early in the first quarter, playing just six minutes and scoring eight points to keep the Mystics within striking distance.

But by the half quarter the Mystics saw themselves falling behind by ten points, 39-29.

Showing resilience and strutting a comeback spurt at the beginning of the third quarter, the Mystics would bring the game within six, outscoring the Monarchs 54% from the field.

The game would tie on several occasions and the Mystics would obtain a 62-59 lead at the end of the third quarter.

Sacramento's Cara Lawson had three 3-pointers in the contest, and two free throws in the final seconds of the game off of a Nikki Blue foul that helped propel her team to victory.

“She was groomed for this”, said her dad, William Lawson.   “She has trained all her career to make clutch plays.”

Alana Beard, who had a career high 33 points against the Phoenix Mercury (in a 98-93 loss on June 3^rd) was held to just 17 points in tonight’s contest.

“It’s disappointing”, Beard said about the loss.

On the upcoming June 13th game in Chicago Beard says, “I don’t question our hard work, but we have to find our continuity and just come up with a win.”

The Mystics are currently 2-7 on the season.

Game notes

Mystics guard, Nikki Blue has been hired as third assistant coach at UNLV.  She will be coaching in the WNBA off-season (September-April).

University of Maryland women’s basketball coach, Brenda Frese, was in attendance at tonight's game.  She tells us her new twins, Markus William and Tyler Joseph, are doing fine, and that we can expect to see them at Mystics home games, “once they’ve worked out their sleeping patterns.”