Fever vs. Mystics Final Score: Washington gets first win, blows out Indy, 79-63

The Mystics win their first game of the season on the road against the Indiana Fever. Rookie guard Bria Hartley had her first career start, where she scored 15 points and 5 assists for the Mystics. In addition for Washington, Kia Vaughn, Ivory Latta, and Tianna Hawkins also scored in double figures. For the Fever, Maggie Lucas and Briann January scored in double figures in the losing effort.

The Mystics set the tone in this game from the beginning and had a 12-0 run in the first quarter to get to an 18 point lead to go up 26-8 at one point. What caught me by surprise the most was Hartley being named a starter in place of Ivory Latta, who had a good shooting performance last week against Minnesota. I don't think it is a sign of anything to come, but it was a shakeup of things nonetheless.

Despite some mini-runs by the Fever in the second quarter, and in the fourth quarter when rookie guard Maggie Lucas made some shots, the outcome of this game wasn't in doubt. The Mystics had their way pretty much all night. They led in field goal percentage, dominated on the rebounds, and made their free throws at a considerably higher clip. The only thing I would like to see the Mystics control better is turnovers. They had 12, three each by Hartley and Stefanie Dolson, while the Fever had nine total.

For Indiana, this team needs to step it up and avoid a cold start like it had last season. Sure, the Fever came back to make the playoffs in 2013, but every team in the Eastern Conference has a good chance to make the playoffs this year and the conference should be pretty even record-wise from top to bottom. For Washington, this is definitely a great win for their young squad, and it's also encouraging to see that the younger players were catalysts behind this effort. Hopefully we see more performances like this throughout the summer.