Shorthanded Liberty blow out Mystics behind Harrison, Johannes

NEW YORK (AP) — Isabelle Harrison scored a season-high 16 points and Marine Johannes added 14 to help the short-handed New York Liberty beat the Washington Mystics 89-63 on Thursday night.

New York (24-15) was missing three starters. Sabrina Ionescu (toe), Jonquel Jones (illness) and Natasha Cloud (nose) all were out. Ionescu hurt a toe on her left foot in practice Wednesday. Jones wasn't feeling well earlier on Thursday and was a late scratch. Cloud broke her nose against Atlanta last week and is day-to-day.

While those three missed the game, Harrison made her return to the New York lineup after missing more than two weeks while dealing with a concussion. She gave the Liberty a lift inside as well as hitting two 3-pointers.

The veteran forward helped turn a six-point halftime lead into a double-digit advantage in the third quarter, hustling on both ends of the court. She helped the Liberty reserves score 35 points.

New York now is tied with Phoenix for the four seed and a half game behind Atlanta for No. 3 with five games to play. Washington (16-23) dropped four games behind eighth place Seattle, which played Minnesota later Thursday night.

The Mystics have lost five straight games despite having a solid pair of rookies in Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen.

Citron, who grew up about 30 miles from Barclays Center, had 15 points in the first half to keep the Mystics in the game. She was scoreless in the second half until hitting a 3-pointer with just under 3 minutes left in the game.

She finished with 18 points.

___

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball