She has been gone for a minute. Well longer than that, however, it still has not hit me that Elena Delle Donne is no longer a member of the Chicago Sky.
Delle Donne and rookie Ariel Atkins scored 25 points apiece to help the Washington Mystics beat the Chicago Sky 88-72 on Friday night.
The Mystics finishes 3-0 against the Sky this regular season and has now defeated the Sky in seven consecutive matches.
“It just kind of reset us. Got us back to playing the way we can,” Delle Donne stated. “We were really upset after that game against Atlanta, and we needed to kind of clean it up tonight to get us ready to get on the road.”
It was a season-high for Atkins, who hit 4 of 7 from 3-point range and grabbed a career-best seven rebounds. Kristi Toliver scored 13 points, and LaToya Sanders added 10 and eight boards for the Mystics (13-8).
Delle Donne converted a three-point play that gave Washington the lead for good and heated a 12-0 run that made it 37-27 in the first half.
Chicago’s Stephanie Dolson made a layup to open the third quarter and trim the deficit to 10 points, but Toliver answered with a 3-pointer, Delle Donne hit a jumper, Sanders converted a three-point play and Atkins hit a 3-pointer to make it 56-35, and the Mystics cruised from there.
Allie Quigley scored 17 points, and Courtney Vandersloot added 11 points and nine assists for the Sky (7-14), who have lost five of their last six games. Chicago, which ranks third in the WNBA in 3-point field goal percentage (36.0) this season, made just 4 of 21 from behind the arc against Washington.
Quigley and Vandersloot combined for all of Chicago’s points beyond the arc.
Photo/ChicagoSky/twitter
