Page 19 - ARUBA TODAY

A19
SPORTS Monday 30 SepteMber 2019
Delle Donne leads Mystics to

95-86 Game 1 win over Sun

By DOUG FEINBERG elite defender, and when game to being aggressive,"
WASHINGTON (AP) — With she bodies up on 99 per- Thibault said. "That looked
the Connecticut Sun ral- cent of the people in the like the Ariel from last year
lying, Elena Delle Donne league and they've picked in the playoffs, and that
wouldn't be denied down up their dribble, she usually offensive rebound she got
the stretch for the Wash- gets them stopped. But we late in the game was a
ington Mystics in Game 1 of all know that EDD's step- huge saver for us. It gave us
the WNBA Finals. through in that last move- the last piece of momen-
The league's MVP scored ment to the basket where tum that we needed."
two big baskets for Wash- she leans in and can cre- The Sun could only get Washington Mystics forward Elena Delle Donne reacts after be-
ing fouled while scoring in the first half of Game 1 of basket-
ington after Connecticut ate space and get her shot within eight the rest of the ball's WNBA Finals against the Connecticut Sun, Sunday, Sept.
had cut its deficit to four in off is the only person in the way. 29, 2019, in Washington.
the fourth quarter and the world that does that."Atkins Courtney Williams scored Associated Press
Mystics held off the Sun 95- followed with a 3-pointer 26 points and Alyssa Thom-
86 on Sunday. that made it a nine-point as added 20 to lead Con- Connecticut didn't see dur- The pair along with LaToya
"It's nice to have a weapon game and then corralled necticut, playing the finals ing the three regular sea- Sanders helped Washing-
like that that can make an offensive rebound that for the first time since 2005. son meetings. Delle Donne ton go on a 12-0 run to
those plays because there's Toliver finished off with a fin- After a tight first 6 min- missed the first game be- close the quarter and give
not very many that can," ger roll down the lane with utes Mike Thibault inserted cause of knee pain. Mees- the Mystics a 30-17 lead.
Washington coach Mike 3:16 left. Emma Meesseman into seman missed the other "It's something we talked
Thibault said. "Ariel Atkins contribution the lineup playing all three two games because she about," Sun guard Jasmine
Delle Donne scored 22 was huge today, from of Washington's bigs to- was with the Belgium na- Thomas said of getting off
points and Ariel Atkins had making her first three of the gether. It was a lineup that tional team to a good start. q
21 for the Mystics, who
earned their first finals win in
franchise history. They were
swept last year by Seattle
in their only other appear-
ance in the championship
round. Delle Donne was
battling a bone bruise in
last year's finals.
"It feels great to know that
I'm able to actually give
everything I have," Delle
Donne said. "Last playoffs
I gave everything I had,
but that was about 70 per-
cent. Just physically I wasn't
there. So, to be back and
to be feeling good and
to have my body working
properly."
Kristi Toliver, who suffered
her own bone bruise this
year, added 18 points for
the Mystics. Game 2 of the
best-of-five series is Tuesday
night in Washington.
The Mystics were up nine
at the half and extended
the lead to 17 in the third
quarter before Connecti-
cut rallied within four twice
in the final period. Delle
Donne — the league's MVP
— answered each time for
Washington with a basket.
Her jumper with 4:56 left
made it 82-76 and started
a 9-0 run to put the game
out of reach.
"Obviously a go-to play-
er down the stretch that
they can play through and
made some big plays,"
Connecticut coach Curt
Miller said of Delle Donne.
"But like Alyssa Thomas is an