Mystics’ Sonia Citron Held a 21-Point Scorer to 8 Points. Her Coach Saw Everything.

Michaela Onyenwere did not wait for the question to finish. She knew exactly what she wanted to say about Sonia Citron after the Mystics beat the Toronto Tempo 79-62 on Tuesday night.

“I’m really, really proud of Sonia,” Onyenwere said. “Just keeping her head up. Defensively, she was amazing on Marina.”

Here is the context: Marina Mabrey entered that game averaging 21 points on 44.7 percent shooting. She is third in the WNBA in scoring. The Tempo run their offense through her. Tuesday night, Citron held her to eight points on 3-of-13 shooting with four turnovers.

Citron herself scored only two points, well below her 17.8 average. That did not matter. She grabbed a game-high four assists, committed just two turnovers and made Mabrey’s night miserable.

“You know, Marina is a great player. Their offense is predicated around Marina,” Onyenwere continued. “We were able to kind of stomach that a little bit, and that’s largely because of Sonia. So she did other things on the court, even though her shot wasn’t falling, and that just was super, super important for Sonia. I’m very proud of her.”

How the Mystics covered for Citron’s quiet scoring night

Kiki Iriafen scored 25 points and grabbed 15 rebounds. Shakira Austin added 17 points and nine boards. Onyenwere chipped in 15. Lucy Olsen hit five straight points off the bench late in the second quarter to cut Toronto’s lead to 30-26. The supporting cast picked up the slack the way good teams do when a star has an off shooting night.

“Obviously, Soni is somebody that we really rely on to score points,” Onyenwere said. “So important for our offense and everything that we’re trying to do. And I just appreciate just how she’s just super, super steady, super consistent. But it’s obviously normal to have kind of off days, off nights. So it’s really important for everyone on the roster to really be ready for their moment.”

The Mystics locked in defensively as a whole, holding Toronto to 35 percent shooting and 27 percent from three. They crushed the Tempo on the glass 47-26, which is not a surprise considering Washington leads the league in rebounds per game at 36.8 and ranks third in opponent field goal percentage at 42.2.

Iriafen and Austin combined for 24 of those boards, which gave the Mystics 10 more field goal attempts and nine more free-throw attempts than Toronto. That kind of edge wins games more often than not.

“We are a team that is predicated on teamwork, moving the ball, toughness,” Onyenwere said. “And as much as that’s like a cliché, it is really what is our identity on this team. And so when somebody maybe is not having a great game, or somebody goes down or whatever it may be, it’s kind of like that next man up mentality.”

Austin explains why Citron’s gravity matters even when she’s not scoring

Shakira Austin pointed out something important about Citron that goes beyond box scores. The 22-year-old draws defensive attention just by being on the floor. Opponents know she can go off at any moment. That gravity opens things up for everyone else.

“I think she also attracts a lot of attention and, you know, her shot might not have been falling, but she was still able to be a great screener,” Austin said. “She was getting trapped on ball screens and having two defenders on her and just consistently making the right reads. It’s just important. Like, we know we’re gonna have nights where she goes off and, you know, it might be a night like this. But just still being able to be impactful on both sides is who Soni is, and I think she still did a great, a great job for us.”

The Mystics sit at 12-10, good for seventh place in the WNBA and one game behind Atlanta for sixth. That record is even more impressive given that this is the youngest roster in league history. Two-time All-Stars Citron and Iriafen are both sophomores. Iriafen ranks fourth in the league with 9.7 rebounds per game. Citron looks like a future All-WNBA defender when she locks in the way she did on Mabrey.

Up next for Washington is a home game against Portland on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET. NBA TV has the broadcast.