– by Adesina O. Koiki
A Lot of Sports Talk editor-in-chief
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WASHINGTON — The gold-medal feeling that Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve and star player Napheesa Collier flew across the Atlantic with continued to emanate with the WNBA season back in full swing.
A two-game showdown with the gold standard of the league now awaits.
Collier scored 15 of her 30 points in the third quarter for Minnesota, leading the Lynx to a 99-83 victory over the Washington Mystics inside Entertainment & Sports Arena on Saturday. Three other players scored in double figures for the Lynx, including Bridget Carleton and her 16 points, as Minnesota shot 57.8 percent from the field to complete a home-and-home sweep against the Mystics in the first two games after the league-wide Olympic break.
That break saw Reeve lead Team USA to its eighth consecutive gold medal in women’s basketball and Collier play a large role in continuing one of the greatest dynasties in Olympic team sports. A couple of nights after it used a staunch defensive fourth-quarter defensive effort to get past Washington on Thursday, holding the Mystics to just 10 points in the final stanza, the Lynx’s offense was the catalyst in the second half and, in particular, in the third quarter.
Collier made all six of her field-goal attempts in the third, including a three-pointer, as the Lynx shot a blistering 12-of-15 from the floor while outscoring Washington 33-17 to blow open their six-point lead (45-39) they carried into halftime.
Stefanie Dolson led the Mystics with 23 points, making all eight of her shots from the field, including 6-for-6 from three-point range.
Minnesota’s home-and-home schedule continues on Wednesday when it goes to Las Vegas to take on the two-time defending champion Aces before hosting them at the Target Center on Friday.
*Editor’s note: Above the byline is the photo gallery from Saturday afternoon’s game, with photos taken by ALOST staff photographer Yusuf Abdullah. After clicking on a photo to enlarge the picture, press the left and right arrow buttons on either side of the caption to scroll through the rest of the pictures that appear on the first page, Also, click on the numbers and/or arrow appearing immediately below the picture grid to load the next set of photos. There are 16 pictures in total.
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