{"id":3092,"date":"2025-05-17T14:49:35","date_gmt":"2025-05-17T14:49:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/?p=3092"},"modified":"2025-07-10T13:59:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T13:59:11","slug":"mystics-win-season-opener-behind-sykes-and-rookie-duo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/2025\/05\/17\/mystics-win-season-opener-behind-sykes-and-rookie-duo\/","title":{"rendered":"Mystics Win Season Opener Behind Sykes and Rookie Duo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The Washington Mystics couldn\u2019t have asked for a better start to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wnba.com\/tip-off-2025\" title=\"\">2025 WNBA season<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Led by a balanced offensive attack and historic rookie performances, the Mystics defeated the Atlanta Dream in their season opener, giving Head Coach Sydney Johnson a win in his franchise debut. It also marked Washington\u2019s third season-opening victory in the last four years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Veteran guard Brittney Sykes led the charge with 22 points and five assists, notching her ninth career game with 20+ points and 5+ assists, and her fourth such performance as a Mystic. Sykes looked in control all night, setting the tone for a team that saw contributions across the board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/24\/youth-movement-mystics-draft-trio-signals-bold-new-era\/\" title=\"\">Rookie guard Sonia Citron<\/a> turned heads in her WNBA debut, scoring 19 points on an ultra-efficient 6-of-7 shooting, along with two rebounds and two assists. Her scoring output tied Nikki McCray for the second-most points in a rookie debut in franchise history. Citron also became the first Mystics rookie since Diamond Miller to post at least 17 points on .850+ shooting, joining franchise standouts Alana Beard and Shakira Austin in that exclusive category.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Joining her in the spotlight was fellow rookie Kiki Iriafen, who chipped in 14 points of her own, the sixth-highest scoring debut by a Mystics rookie. Together, Citron and Iriafen became just the second rookie duo in franchise history to score in double figures in their first career games, a feat last accomplished by Chamique Holdsclaw and Shalonda Enis in 1999.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore, Sug Sutton made her presence felt in her first start with Washington, tying her career high with three steals. Jade Melbourne added 11 points and a team-best five rebounds off the bench, tying her career high for first-half points with ten and providing key energy throughout the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In total, five Mystics players scored in double figures, just the second time in franchise history that has occurred in a season opener. The team shot over 50% from both the field and beyond the arc, marking their most efficient shooting performance since September 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Mystics also dominated several other categories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>They attempted 31 free throws, their most in a game since July 2023.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They outscored Atlanta\u2019s bench 20-13.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>They turned defense into offense, racking up 20 points off turnovers while allowing just four in return.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>As the team begins a new chapter under Coach Johnson, this season opener showed a promising blend of veteran leadership, rookie firepower, and early team chemistry \u2014 all the right ingredients that make for a promising season ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brittney Sykes led the charge while rookies Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen made history in the Mystics\u2019 impressive season-opening win over Atlanta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10],"tags":[143,113,112,102,26],"class_list":["post-3092","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wnba","tag-brittney-sykes","tag-kiki-iriafen","tag-sonia-citron","tag-washington-mystics","tag-wnba"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/BrittneySykesOpener-scaled-e1747493341788.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3092"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3096,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3092\/revisions\/3096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3092"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3092"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbltakesports.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3092"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}