Mystics’ Sonia Citron did something no WNBA player had done in 20 years during four-overtime thriller originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Sunday in the WNBA saw the Portland Fire and the Washington Mystics play out the joint-longest game in league history.
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Few could have anticipated that the Mystics and the Fire would need four overtimes and 60 minutes of game time to settle their differences. But when Carla Leite‘s last-second floater bounced off the heel of the rim in the fourth overtime, Washington prevailed over Portland in a game that featured 247 combined points, 199 shot attempts and two players who logged at least 50 minutes.
MORE: Portland Fire’s Carla Leite puts Mystics’ Shakira Austin in a blender with filthy handles
The Fire’s Bridget Carleton played 50:39 before she fouled out midway through the fourth overrate. But Mystics star Sonia Citron gutted it out for 52 minutes and 33 seconds, becoming the first WNBA player since 2006 to play at least that many minutes in a single game.
Making that fact even sweeter is that Citron scored a career-high 32 points and hit the eventual game-winning layup with 21 seconds remaining in the Mystics’ 124-123 victory.
If the game had gone to a record-shattering fifth overtime, Citron likely would have broken Sheryl Swoopes’ mark of 55 minutes played during the Houston Comets’ triple-overtime loss to the Phoenix Mercury on Aug. 10, 2006.
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In WNBA history, four of the six players to log at least 52 minutes and 33 seconds played were all on the court on the same day.
That day was July 3, 2001, when WNBA games were played over two halves instead of four quarters.
Back then, Mystics and the Seattle Storm went to the league’s first quarduple-overtime game — which Washington also won, 72-69.
