WASHINGTON – Shannon Bobbitt made a floating layup at the buzzer to give the Indiana Fever a 61-59 victory over the Washington Mystics on Friday night.
Tamika Catchings led Indiana (13-6) with 16 points, as the Fever won their third straight and swept a two-game, two-day road trip.
"One of the things we said we wanted to focus on was winning the first two games," after the All-Star break, said Catchings, who added nine rebounds and five assists. "I think our intensity the last two games has just been really high."
Matee Ajavon led Washington (3-14) with 19 points, but missed a 17-foot fadeaway jumper with 18 seconds left that would've given the Mystics the lead.
Katie Douglas won an ensuing jump ball after a tie-up, and then after a timeout, Bobbitt took the inbounds pass, faked a pass as she drove the lane and hit a relatively uncontested shot as time expired for her only points of the contest.
"We tried to keep it out of the hands of the major players, and we did that," said Ajavon, who gave Washington its first lead, 56-55, on a layup with 6:31 left. "We got the ball in Shannon's hands. We tried to make her take a tough shot, and she just made it."
Crystal Langhorne added 17 points for the Mystics, who lost their fourth straight and ninth in 10 games while seeing their late-game struggles continue. The Mystics have lost their last three by a combined 12 points.
It was nearly different this time. Ajavon followed her first go-ahead basket with jumper over Jeannette Pohlen two minutes later, and followed that with a foul shot to make it 59-57.
But Jessica Davenport hit a foul-line jumper off Catchings' feed to tie it with 1:38 to play, before Bobbitt's shot decided the contest.
"Our schedule is going to test us," said Douglas, who missed Thursday's 69-58 win at Connecticut with remnants of a stomach bug. "Anytime you can get a win on the road and string two together on back-to-backs, it's a good trip."
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