What can you say about a game in which your bench outscores your starters 45-32 and outscores the opposition's bench 45-10?

How about "Yippee!!"?

Or, if you're New York coach Patty Coyle: "I've been saying it all year. One of our strengths is our bench. I feel confident putting anyone in there."

Last night's 77-56 victory by the Liberty over the Mystics pulled the team within a half-game of the second-place Sun and 2-1/2 of the first-place Shock. The Liberty outscored Washington in every quarter, and did not trail during the final three periods.

It's also the team's third straight win, which is confusing the heck outta Lib fans, who've gotten used to the W-L-W-L pattern. Not that we're complaining, mind you.

A couple of delightful moments during a not particularly attractive game

• Leilani "Mini-Mi's" mini Hail Mary shot (and an MSG graphic that showed that over the last 9 games, her assist to turnover ratio is 22-1.
• Tiffany "I'm breaking out, y'all" Jackson's play -- including a grin inducing "clap, clap, beam!" reaction after a play.
• Ashley "PULL!" Battle's return to the scoring ranks. I call her "PULL" 'cause her shot -- especially her three -- has such a high arc and slow rotation/motion that you can hear the skeet shooters in the audience taking aim.
• JMac's "Pick of Death" on Nikki Blue. It was a thing of beauty. Nikki was chasing after Mini Mi at a good clip and then "BOOM," smack dab in the middle -- there was Janel. The kicker, though, was JMac giving Nikki a "there, there" pat on the shoulder as she stood up and tried to recover.
  

As for the Mystics, Alana Beard scored 15 points and Taj McWilliams-Franklin had 12 points and nine rebounds for the Mystics. But Washington shot 34 percent and committed 22 turnovers that led to 27 points for New York.

If you're a Washington fan (yes, I heard you last night ), not much to be said but "ouch."