Alana Beardspent nearly all of the third quarter and much of the fourth on the bench for the Mystics on Sunday afternoon after suffering a heavy blow to her right eye during a scramble for rebound two minutes after halftime.
Looking like a prizefighter, Beard still managed to bank in one of only two Washington field goals in the final quarter with just under a minute to play, helping the Mystics hold off Connecticut, 69-64, in front of 9,610 at Verizon Center.
“I can [still] see, it’s just to the right,” said Beard, who demonstrated the setup for her natural left-handed shooting stroke. “It was a good thing the goal was like, right here [left shoulder]. If I had to shoot it coming off [the right], I would’ve missed it big time.”
With Beard out, Nikki Blue scored a career-high 13 points, including three 3-pointers, while Taj McWilliams-Franklin (11 points, 10 rebounds) and Nakia Sanford (9 points, 11 rebounds) cleaned the boards.
Lindsay Whalen matched her career-high with 33 points to lead the Sun (13-8), but most came on the heels of 22-2 and 13-2 runs in the second and third quarters, respectively, for the Mystics (8-12).
“When your point guard has half your points,” said Sun coach Mike Thibault, “That’s not a good thing.”
