Angel Reese Double-Doubles as Hailey Van Lith, Sky Lose to Mystics, Drop to 3-8

Tuesday was a day to forget for the Chicago Sky.

Their 2025 struggles continued with a 79-72 loss to the Washington Mystics in Tuesday's WNBA Commissioner's Cup showdown at Wintrust Arena. They fell to 3-8 overall and were unable to protect a 16-point advantage on their home court.

As for Washington, it picked up a much-needed victory and improved to 5-7 with a second win in its last three games. 

Brittney Sykes was unstoppable for the Mystics with 32 points, five assists and three steals behind 13-of-24 shooting from the field and 4-of-5 shooting from deep. She was the only member of her team to score more than 13, which helped Washington overcome double-doubles from Angel Reese (17 points, 10 rebounds and five assists) and Kamilla Cardoso (18 points and 10 rebounds).

Hailey Van Lith added five points off the bench, although she and Reese combined for 12 turnovers as the home team made a number of important mistakes down the stretch to spoil a promising start.

It also spoiled some individual momentum for Reese considering she entered play coming off the first triple-double of her WNBA career during Sunday's win over the Connecticut Sun.

It seemed to be more of the same in the early going, as the Mystics had no answer down low for the Reese and Cardoso combination as they overpowered the opposing frontcourt with an array of post moves on the blocks.

Reese also played the role of point forward at times while bringing the ball up the floor and continuing to show off her passing skills after her latest performance. That created spacing and prevented the Mystics from establishing too many double teams on either forward as the Sky built a 12-point halftime advantage.

It wasn't just the offense that stood out, as Chicago swarmed Washington's ball-handlers and forced 11 turnovers in that opening half.

And then the second half started.

The Mystics flipped the script and dominated the third quarter behind Sykes' individual brilliance. She hit from the outside, attacked off the bounce and set up her teammates while picking apart the Chicago backcourt and silencing the crowd.

Washington extended its own lead to as many as six in the third, although the Sky battled back to tie the contest heading to the fourth. But that momentum didn't help Chicago in crunch time, as Sykes took over for stretches with the game on the line.

While Sykes proved to be the difference, Kiki Iriafen made the biggest basket of the game to extend the lead to five in the final 30 seconds.

The Sky couldn't overcome that late deficit and will now turn their attention to Saturday's home game against the Phoenix Mercury.