Sweeeeeet!!! Coming into tonight's game in Charlotte, the Mystics had not won a road game since July 21, 2005. That's right, nine straight losses on the road extending back into last season. Tonight, however, the Mystics not only broke that string of road losses by defeating the Sting, 96-77, they also broke some records (well, at least one) along the way. After a close (and foul-plagued) first half, down 38-42, the Mystics broke the game wide open in the third quarter by scoring 35 points, setting a new WNBA record for most points scored in a quarter. And in the waning seconds of the game, with the Mystics sitting at 95 points, rookie Tamara James sank a free throw to give the Mystics, according to the announcers, a new franchise record! [There's only one problem . . . as our astute blog readers brought to our attention (see Comments below), the Mystics scored 97 points in a win over Utah on June 4, 2002.] Anyway --- back to the game --- with Crystal Robinson out suffering from cramps and most of the other starters in early foul trouble (in no small measure due to some questionable officiating), the Mystics' bench stepped up big time. Laurie Koehn in particular had a stellar night, playing nearly 20 minutes and shooting a perfect 4 of 4 from the field, including 3 of 3 from (way!) behind the three point line. The Road Worry-ers certainly looked like Road Warriors tonight.

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The BasketCases give a big shout out to the Comcast SportsNet broadcasting team of Byron Kerr and Christy Winters-Scott. Byron, who has been the Mystics' radio voice for years and who does a terrific job making the game come alive in that non-visual medium, was a good pairing with Christy. They provided informed commentary (and in some cases, misinformed commentary) with the right amount of energy; we hope to see more of Byron on TV in the future.