Mystics beat Sky 82-67 in Delle Donne's return to Chicago
ROSEMONT, Ill. (AP) - Elena Delle Donne scored 21 points and grabbed eight rebounds in her return to Chicago and the Washington Mystics beat the Sky 82-67 on Wednesday.
The 2015 MVP asked to be traded in the offseason after four seasons with the Sky. She opened the scoring with a turnaround jumper from the free throw line and finished 7 of 15 from the floor.
"Definitely feels weird coming in here, being in the guest locker room, being on the other bench and all," Delle Donne said. "But my teammates, they've been great and even in the locker room they're like 'how you feeling,' 'you good, you good?' Just checking on me and that made me relax."
Neither team led by more than six points in the first three quarters, but Washington broke it open early in the fourth quarter with a 14-6 spurt. Delle Donne had six points during the span, Ivory Latta and Natasha Cloud each hit a 3-pointer, and the Mystics' lead didn't drop below eight points the rest of the way.
Tierra Ruffin-Pratt added 15 points and 10 rebounds for Washington (2-2), ranked sixth in the AP power poll. Reserve Tianna Hawkins scored 12 points and grabbed nine boards.
The Mystics shot only 40 percent, but had 19 assists on 29 field goals.
"That's one of the best parts about our team is that we do move the ball well," Washington coach Mike Thibault said. "We're unselfish and we try to find the open man. If we had hit some 3s like we normally can, we might have had a few more."
Cappie Pondexter led 10th-ranked Chicago (1-3) with 17 points and 10 assists. She also moved into seventh on the WNBA career assists list. Stefanie Dolson had 13 points and 11 rebounds against her former team, and Allie Quigley also scored 13 - all in the first half. Starting point guard Courtney Vandersloot missed her fourth game.
Quigley scored eight of Chicago's first 15 points in her first game of the season since returning from Turkey, and the Sky trailed 43-41 at halftime after shooting just 33 percent.