Hot-shooting Mystics too tough for Sky

Fire in the belly was in order Friday night.

After a rather lackluster effort against the New York Liberty on Tuesday, the Chicago Sky needed a change in its emotional disposition.

But no amount of heat from the Sky, emotional or otherwise, could match the red-hot shooting of the Washington Mystics, who swished a whopping 62 percent of their shots in route to a 95-78 victory at Allstate Arena.

The loss is the second straight for the Sky, which had won a franchise-best four straight games before the New York loss at Allstate.

The Sky is 2-3 at home and 4-6 overall.

"I don't know of many teams that just get layups like that," Sky guard Jia Perkins said, recounting all the easy drives to the basket that yielded high percentage shots for the Mystics. "We didn't have our help side defense (working) tonight."

Washington guard Lindsay Harding might not have even been stopped by help defense. She often carved through the heart of the Sky defense without a second thought.

Harding scored most of her game- and season-high 25 points on drives to the basket, but she also was able to dish out a game-high 5 assists by kicking the ball back out to wide-open teammates such as Monique Currie, who finished with 22 points, and Matee Ajavon, who added 14 points.

"I played to my strength, which is penetrating," said Harding, who came into the game averaging 11.5 points.

Harding's efforts made up for a quiet night by forward Crystal Langhorne, who is averaging 16 points per game but was held to just 6 points by the Sky defense.

The Sky was also playing without all of its guns blazing.

Center Sylvia Fowles wound up with a team-high 23 points, but was forced to sit and watch for a long stretch in the first half because of foul trouble.

And forward Shameka Christon, who had her best game in a Sky uniform a week ago when she dropped 17 points on Tulsa on 4-of-6 shooting from 3-point land, played only four minutes. She took a hard elbow from Fowles to the eye while going for a first-quarter rebound and left the game.

She was immediately taken to the hospital for observation and her status was still unavailable after the game.

"She's a big loss," Perkins said of Christon. "She's a big part of our team offensively and defensively."

Perkins did what she could to fill in the perimeter scoring void. She rang up a season-high 19 points, including three 3-pointers. Guard Dominique Canty chipped in with 15 points, also a season high.

"They just got a lot of easy shots," Canty said of the Mystics, who improve to 5-4. "We got away from our defensive game plan."