The Washington Mystics’ future was blindingly shiny on Tuesday night time, thanks largely to their rookie pair of Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen.
The 2 mixed for a historic franchise accomplishment, as Washington took care of enterprise at CareFirst Area versus the visiting Chicago Sky, scoring a 103-86 victory.
Citron led all scorers within the contest with 28 factors whereas capturing 10-for-15 from the ground whereas including two rebounds, two assists, a steal and a block in 29 minutes of motion. Iriafen, then again, generated 22 factors on 8-for-14 capturing to associate with 10 rebounds, 4 assists and two steals in half-hour.
With their huge performances, Citron and Iriafen grew to become simply the primary Washington rookie pair in franchise historical past to achieve a selected single-game scoring milestone.
“And one other Mystics file within the books 📚 First time in staff historical past that two rookies posted 20+ factors in the identical recreation,” the Mystics wrote in a submit on X (previously Twitter).
Citron, who performed school basketball with the Notre Dame Preventing Irish earlier than getting chosen third general by the Mystics on the 2025 WNBA draft, made a residing within the Sky recreation from behind the arc, as she knocked down 5 of six makes an attempt from deep. In the meantime, Iriafen dominated contained in the 3-point line whereas going 6-for-8 from the foul line. Iriafen, a product of the USC Trojans girls’s basketball program, was taken by Washington only a spot after Citron within the WNBA draft.
For sure, Mystics head coach Sydney Johnson was thrilled by how Iriafen and Citron have been performing in simply their rookie WNBA season.
“Before everything, simply how fortunate we’re to have them in a Mystics uniform,” Johnson stated after the Sky recreation (h/t Kareem Copeland of The Washington Put up).
“To return to this league and actually need to be nice and open to teaching by means of the highs and lows, by means of the strain protection and officiating and the completely different scheme … I don’t know what to inform you. However the future’s actually nice with the pair — it’s simply as clear as day.”
Washington obtained again to .500 with a 13-13 file and shall be dealing with the Golden State Valkyries up subsequent on Thursday at CareFirst Area.