WASHINGTON MYSTICS 78, CHARLOTTE STING 73

Charlotte's bid for a playoff berth came to an end on Sunday night as they suffered a 78-73 defeat at the hands of the Washington Mystics. The Sting battled hard hoping to stay in the playoff race but couldn't overcome a career-high 26-point effort from Washington's DeLisha Milton-Jones as they fell to 8-20 on the season.

The Sting, who led by as many as nine in the third quarter, held a four-point advantage (59-55) as the two teams headed into the decisive final stanza. Milton-Jones quickly erased the deficit scoring four quick points to knot the game at 59. The lead exchanged hands over the next several minutes before a basket by Milton-Jones at the 6:15 mark gave the Mystics a one-point advantage.

Washington pushed their lead to five with 2:33 remaining but a jumper from Tangela Smith kept the Sting within striking distance cutting the margin to three just seconds later. The Sting though could not find an answer to Milton-Jones as the eight-year veteran connected on a clutch three-pointer with 1:30 left to push the lead back to six. Milton-Jones scored 13 points, connecting on five of six field goals, in the final 10 minutes of play to help Washington clinch a playoff berth in the Eastern Conference.

Monique Currie, in her return to her hometown, led four Sting players in double figures with 16 points and a season-high eight rebounds. Kelly Mazzante continued her recent string of double figure scoring performance posting her fifth straight with 12 points while Tammy Sutton-Brown and Tangela Smith finished with 11 and 10 points respectively.

With both teams playing in the second half of back-to-back contests, Charlotte and Washington played even through the first 10 minutes. The Sting played tough defense limiting the Mystics to just .278 shooting in the first stanza but free throw shooting kept Washington in the game as the Mystics connected on 5-6 free throws while the Sting did not attempt a shot from the charity stripe. At the end of one, the score was knotted at 15.

The Sting continued their tough defensive pressure on the Mystics in the second quarter holding Washington to just one field goal through the first 7:07 of the quarter. Charlotte took advantage of the Mystics shooting woes to go on an 11-4 run and take a 26-19 lead with 4:48 remaining in the first half.

The ejection of guard Alana Beard with two technical fouls less than a minute later seemed to inspire the Mystics as they finished the quarter on a 14-8 run to pull within one (34-33) of the Sting at halftime. Despite shooting just .200 from the floor in the second quarter, Washington made up for their lack of offensive production by going 12-13 from the free throw line in the period.

Washington continued to build on their momentum as the teams entered the third period. Milton-Jones kicked off the second half with a 12-foot jumper that sparked an 8-2 run to give the Mystics a 41-36 advantage.

Currie however picked up the slack for the Sting, scoring six straight points to spark a 12-2 run that gave Charlotte a five-point adantage with 3:20 left in the period. Charlotte continued to shoot the ball well from the field, as they shot .529 (9-17) from the floor in the third. The Sting pushed their lead to nine on a three-point play from Sheri Sam with 1:30 left in the period. Washington refused to go away though as they ended the quarter with five straight point to cut the lead to four heading into the fourth.

The Sting held the Mystics to just .365 shooting in the game but Washington won the battle of the boards, 38-29, and was dominating at the free throw line connectng on 29-36 free throws (.806) while the Sting went 13-22 (.591) from the charity stripe.

In addition to Milton-Jones' 26 points, Nikki Teasley added 14 while Chasity Melvin scored 12 for the Mystics.

Charlotte continues their four-game road swing on Tuesday as they travel to San Antonio to face the Silver Stars at 8:00 p.m.

HEAD COACH MUGGSY BOGUES SAYS... (On missed opportunities during the game) Exactly right, it was missed opportunities – you have to learn how to take advantage of those free throw shots. We didn’t shoot well from the free throw line. We shot like 58, 59 percent from the free throw line. This was a game where opportunities, we thought that we had. When the star player is taken out of the game, we knew that everyone else was going to pick their intensity up. We just didn’t pay attention to detail. (On the team) We’ve got to keep it together for next year. You know, it’s been a process for me, trying to understand what I have, you know, trying to better this team. We have areas that we need to address once the season is over with. Right now, we just need to focus on playing hard, keep trying to get better, keep trying to uplift everybody, and finish the season out. INSIDE THE LOCKER ROOM TAMMY SUTTON-BROWN (On the game) We just didn’t take advantage of those chances. We needed defensive stops, and we just didn’t get it in the end. Rebounds were key for us – keeping players off the boards. That just leads to good defense, which leads to good offense. But, it just wasn’t there for us tonight. (On Alana Beard leaving the game) At that point, we knew that we just needed to step up. We knew that they were gonna come out on fire, having one of their key players go down. And a lot of their girls stepped up, DeLisha Milton played well, their post players played well, their shooters played well, so they took advantage of that.

July 30, 2006 Team 1 2 3 4 TOT CHA 15 19 25 14 73 WAS 15 18 22 23 78 STAR OF THE GAME MONIQUE CURRIE 16 points 8 rebounds 2 assists SUB OF THE GAME KELLY MAZZANTE 12 points 6 rebounds STAT OF THE GAME FREE THROWS MADE Charlotte - 13 Washington - 29 HUSTLE BOARD Team REB STL BLK TOT CHA 29 2 7 38 WAS 38 10 3 51