If there’s one thing both teams agreed on after Sunday’s absolute marathon between the Washington Mystics and the Portland Fire, it’s this: nobody wanted to play a fifth overtime.
Four overtimes. A combined 247 points. A game that tied the WNBA record for longest ever played. And in the end, the Mystics escaped with a 124-123 win, thanks to Sonia Citron’s bucket with 21.4 seconds left that basically said “we’re done here.”
Citron finished with a career-high 32 points. She also grabbed six rebounds and dished four assists. Her shooting from the field wasn’t pretty — she went 9-for-24 — but she was damn near automatic at the line, hitting 13 of 14 free throws. And when it mattered most, she got the ball in the basket.
“I don’t think any of us on either team wanted to play another overtime,” Citron said after the game. “It wasn’t pretty, but honestly, just get the ball in the basket and let’s get stops, let’s really try to end it this time.”
The Fire had their chances. With 13.1 seconds left, Carla Leite missed a free throw. Fried Buhner grabbed the offensive board but missed a close shot, then grabbed her own miss again. Portland called timeout with 3.4 seconds on the clock. Leite got a floater off, but it clanked off the rim.
The win snapped a two-game losing streak for Washington, pushing them to 9-9 on the season. Portland dropped its third straight and fell to 8-12.
Citron wasn’t the only one carrying the load. Michaela Onyenwere dropped 30 points, five rebounds, and five assists. Kiki Iriafen stuffed the stat sheet with 27 points, 11 boards, six assists, and two steals. It was the kind of team effort you need when the game stretches past regulation into triple overtime, then quadruple.
The last time the WNBA saw a four-overtime game? 2001, when the Mystics beat the Seattle Storm. So yeah, Washington has a weird history with these marathon games.
This version was the longest game by total minutes in league history. Both teams looked exhausted by the end, hacking and praying and throwing up prayers. But the Mystics made one more play than the Fire did.
Washington now gets a mini-break before hosting Atlanta on Thursday. Portland heads back to the drawing board trying to figure out how to close games that go this long.
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