With 16 points on the board vs the Las Vegas Aces, Shakira Austin couldn’t help but keep her ‘little’ comment to herself in the post-game presser. The match saw Austin scoring rebound after rebound against the Aces, and she had an interesting reason for that. A shortfall on the Vegas side allowed her to win the interior battle, which helped win the game by two points. In a close call where the Mystics were behind the entire game, the final few moments turned the game around.

Austin was pretty clear on their game plan, despite some minor setbacks. “I mean we, me and Slim in a pick and roll, is easy money, and I slipped out, got the got the offensive rebound um positioning and I mean the coaches were just telling me, you know, I was upset about missing the one before and told me I was going to be able to get it back.”

In the last few seconds of the game, Austin managed to get an offensive rebound from Sykes, following which she sent the ball through the hoop for a two-pointer. How, you might ask, was the forward able to get so many boards in the game? With 6 defensive rebounds and 2 offensive ones, it was her reply had Coach Sydney Johnson holding back his laughter.

Shakira Austin, standing at 1.96 meters tall, didn’t hold back her jab: “Just being able to keep my head up and finish knowing that nobody around me was really that tall.” Yeah, she went there. In a game where height is paramount, Austin took a shot at the Aces, and she didn’t stop there. “I was up. Oh, nobody’s here.”

The room couldn’t hold its silence as laughs were heard from Sykes, Johnson and the people in the room alike. But the score speaks for itself. After that nail-biter finish at Vegas, Austin and Sykes were all smiles. Of course, unlike the time when Austin had a back-and-forth with Angel Reese.

How did Shakira Austin and Brittney Sykes make that comeback?

The entire night, the capital was quiet. Point after point went to what looked like a dominant Aces side. With Jewell Lloyd stacking up 20 points for them, the scoreline hit 44-29. But that’s where Austin and Slim started changing up the rhythm. The Mystics showed resilience and grit, sparked by a commanding fourth-quarter performance that flipped the script in front of a stunned Michelob Ultra Arena crowd. Brittney Sykes led the charge, pouring in clutch buckets and locking down defensively in the last stretch, while Edwards delivered key stops and plays that shifted momentum.

But the shocker came in the last few minutes when Shakira Austin made an offensive rebound after an attempt from Sykes and sealed the game. In the post-game presser, Slim was all smiles, praising the coach, outlining the Mystics’ attitude: “I mean, we just stick to it. Like it doesn’t matter what the score is, whether we’re up 20, down 20. We’re gonna play hard. We’re gonna play Mrs. Basketball. And coach has helped us lay that foundation of just toughness and grit and just understanding that we will never back down.”

The dynamic duo of Sykes and Austin definitely gave the Vegas crowd a show to remember. A stellar performance with 16 and 18 points, they pulled the Washington side out from a double digit deficit, and all because the Aces were not tall enough to keep up with Shakira Austin!