{"id":161226,"date":"2025-09-16T16:42:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T16:42:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/161226\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T16:42:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T16:42:07","slug":"washington-mystics-trio-claims-major-wnba-awards-amid-disappointing-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/161226\/","title":{"rendered":"Washington Mystics Trio Claims Major WNBA Awards Amid Disappointing Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite finishing with a losing record and missing the postseason, the Washington Mystics<\/a> earned significant recognition this season with three players capturing major Associated Press honors.<\/p>\n

Center Shakira Austin was named AP Comeback Player of the Year, while rookie standouts Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen were both unanimously selected to the 2025 AP All-Rookie Team.<\/p>\n

\u201cSonia and Kiki should be considered for Rookie of the Year,\u201d Mystics head coach Sydney Johnson said before the official announcement. \u201cWhat they\u2019ve already done is super exciting to build on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dynamic rookie duo appeared in all 44 games during the 2025 WNBA season, with Dallas Wings<\/a> guard Paige Bueckers<\/a> ultimately claiming AP Rookie of the Year honors. The No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft led UConn<\/a> to the NCAA championship but played on a Wings team that won only 10 games and missed the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaige Bueckers is an absolutely wonderful player,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

Bueckers averaged 19.2 points, 5.4 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals in 36 games, beginning her WNBA career by scoring in double-digits in 30 consecutive games.<\/p>\n

Austin\u2019s Resilient Return<\/p>\n

\"WashingtonCredit: Rafael Suanes-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

After playing in just 12 games during the 2024 season due to injury, Austin appeared in a career-high 38 games this year while posting personal bests across multiple statistical categories.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just proud of how resilient I was,\u201d said Austin, who averaged career-highs in points (12.7), assists (1.8), and blocks (1.1) along with 6.4 rebounds and 1.1 steals per game. \u201cI was finally able to focus on being out there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Austin joined an elite group of just five players in 2025 to average at least 12, five rebounds, one assist, one block, and one steal per game, alongside Napheesa Collier (Minnesota Lynx<\/a>), A\u2019ja Wilson<\/a> (Las Vegas Aces<\/a>), Breanna Stewart<\/a> (New York Liberty<\/a>), and Azura Stevens (Los Angeles Sparks).<\/p>\n

Her breakout performance came Aug. 24 against the Seattle Storm<\/a>, when Austin recorded 30 points, five rebounds, four blocks, one assist, and one steal \u2014 becoming the first player in Mystics history to post at least 30 points and four blocks in a single game.<\/p>\n

Austin became the first player in franchise history to earn AP Player of the Year honors, while Citron and Iriafen became the fourth and fifth Mystics players named to the AP All-Rookie Team.<\/p>\n

Record-Breaking Rookie Seasons<\/p>\n

\"WashingtonCredit: Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Citron finished with 657 total points \u2014 both the most by a Washington rookie and the most in a single season in franchise history.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe season has been great,\u201d said Citron. \u201cI have so much gratitude about how it went down.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her debut campaign, Citron averaged 14.9 points, four rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.3 steals per game while leading the WNBA in three-point percentage (44.5%) \u2014 the highest mark by a rookie in league history. Her 81 three-pointers tied for ninth-most league-wide and matched the single-season franchise record.<\/p>\n

Iriafen averaged 13.3 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 1.6 assists while shooting nearly 50% from the field. She joined an exclusive group of six players to average at least 12 points and eight rebounds on 48% or better shooting, and became just the seventh rookie in WNBA history to achieve those benchmarks.<\/p>\n

Iriafen\u2019s 16 double-doubles set both a 2025 rookie record and single-season franchise mark, ranking fifth league-wide. Her 8.5 rebounds per game topped all rookies in franchise history and ranked fourth in the WNBA this season.<\/p>\n

The Lynx, Aces, Atlanta Dream<\/a>, Phoenix Mercury<\/a>, Liberty, Indiana Fever<\/a>, Storm and Golden State Valkyries<\/a> qualified for the playoffs. The Aces enter the postseason riding a 16-game winning streak to close the regular season, tying the 2014 Phoenix Mercury<\/a> for the second-longest streak in WNBA history.<\/p>\n

2025 AP Award Winners:<\/p>\n

Player of the Year: A\u2019ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces<\/p>\n

Rookie of the Year: Paige Bueckers, Dallas Wings<\/p>\n

Defensive Player of the Year: A\u2019ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces<\/p>\n

Coach of the Year: Natalie Nakase, Golden State Valkyries<\/p>\n

Comeback Player of the Year: Shakira Austin, Washington Mystics<\/p>\n

Most Improved Player: Veronica Burton, Golden State Valkyries<\/p>\n

Sixth Woman of the Year: Naz Hillmon, Atlanta Dream<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite finishing with a losing record and missing the postseason, the Washington Mystics earned significant recognition this season…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":161227,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,8253,434],"class_list":["post-161226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-washington-mystics","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}