Lindsey Harding News

On Sunday after a Game 3 loss, Phoenix's Tangela Smith spoke barely above a whisper in a quiet Mercury locker room.

The following is the daily report filed by the communications staff at USA Basketball about the USA national team camp in Washington.

The U.S. women's national hockey team will begin its 10-game Qwest Tour at 7 tonight against the WCHA all-stars at Xcel Energy Center.

James Isch was appointed NCAA interim president, less than a week after Myles Brand died of pancreatic cancer at age 67.

If it had been a playoff game -- or simply a game with a closer score -- when Alana Beard rolled her ankle against the Seattle Storm on Tuesday, it would have been impossible to keep the Washington Mystics' all-star on the bench. But with her team trailing, 50-31, with just more than seven minutes remaining in the third quarter, the decision to rest Beard was easy.

Beard played 17 minutes against Seattle, her fewest in any game this season. She wasn't the only player who received a break this week.

Lindsey Harding has played in every game for Washington this season after being hampered by injuries during her first two years with Minnesota.

At age 22, Renee Montgomery has a lot of dreams. The Lynx rookie point guard wants to open a daycare center, be a model and be a broadcaster, maybe for ESPN.

With Connecticut coming off its sixth straight playoff appearance and Washington trying to recover from a 10-24 season, the Mystics' road win over the Sun to open the year seemed like an upset at the time.

Mystics head coach Julie Plank has her team near the top of the Eastern Conference standings.

With Connecticut coming off its sixth straight playoff appearance and Washington trying to recover from a 10-24 season, the Mystics ' road win over the Sun to open the year seemed like an upset at the time.

In only 18 games, the Washington Mystics have already matched last year's total with 10 victories.

The Race to the MVP column will return next week. In its place for All-Star week is a look at some of the stars that we will not see this weekend in Connecticut.

In the second installment of our weekly Who's Hot and Who's Not report, we look at the past week of games to see which players are at the top of their game and which players have hit a rough patch and need to turn things around.

Lindsey Harding let out a big sigh as she walked off the court following the Washington Mystics' 68-67 victory over the New York Liberty last night. Over the previous two hours, she had seen her team struggle early, recover to open up an 18-point, third-quarter advantage, and then throw it away.

But the Mystics held on to win, thanks to Harding's heady play throughout the game and her clutch free throws with 8.2 seconds remaining. Those two shots gave the Mystics a four-point edge, which turned out to be vital when New York's Shameka Christon sank a three-pointer at the buzzer.

The Minnesota Lynx signed forward Tasha Humphrey, a former first-round draft choice.

Alana Beard's late heroics helped the Washington Mystics pull out a road win over the San Antonio Silver Stars last month.

Find out more about Jake: Jake is a Princeton University graduate who has written about sports all his life.

Rookie Renee Montgomery scored 16 of her season-high 21 points in the final two-minutes of regulation and overtime as the Minnesota Lynx rallied to beat the Washington Mystics 96-94 on Tuesday.

Lynx at a glance: The Lynx gave up too many offensive rebounds Thursday in a 74-68 loss to Sacramento.

New month. New rankings. New No. 1. Riding its franchise-record tying sixth consecutive victory, Indiana supplanted Seattle for the top spot.