28YO WNBA Star Suffers Black Eye as Rookie Alissa Pili Drops Career High in Win vs Diana Taurasi’s Mercury

Another day, another defeat for the Phoenix Mercury. Nate Tibbetts’ team’s horrible road trip came to an end on Friday night with a blowout in Minnesota. Although Mercury has been playing efficiently, it can’t be ignored that they are affected by their hectic schedule, resulting in injuries and exhaustion. Meanwhile, the other teams are capitalizing on Mercury’s misfortunes. In today’s game, the Minnesota Lynx took a 95-71 win and left the Mercury jaded by handing them their 4th consecutive loss. While Lynx’s star rookie, Alissa Pili, had a career night, her teammate, Cecilia Zandalasini, suffered a black eye.

The 8th Overall Draft pick Alissa Pili scored a career-high 20 points along with 4 rebounds, and 2 assists against Phoenix. She was 7-9 from the field and 4-4 from the three-point range in her 15 minutes on court. It was by far her best performance of the season in which she had been averaging just 1.3 points and 1 rebound per game ahead of Friday night’s encounter with the Mercury. However, in today’s game, the Lynx also encountered an injury problem.

During the 4th quarter, with Minnesota already up by 24 points, the Mercury’s Mikah Herbert Harrigan drove in for a layup but was met by Lynx forward Cecilia Zandalasini, who went straight up to potentially block Harrigan. It was at that moment when Harrigan’s elbow unintentionally hit Zandalasini in the face. It was only a minute after contact, that Zandalasini’s right eye started to swell up and turned purple. The impact was being examined on the screen while she was on the bench when someone offered her a mini mirror to check her bruise.

Zadalasini is currently in her second season with the Lynx and scored 12 points, 3 rebounds, and 3 assists off the bench in today’s game. However, if her injury takes a painful turn then the Lynx might have to play without her for a while. Rest is left unspoken until she is evaluated by the medical staff of the team. Meanwhile, let’s take a look at some other details of the game.

Phoenix vs. Minnesota game highlights

After today’s game, Phoenix’s record has come down to 3-5 despite starting the season well. Kahleah Copper scored 21 points, followed by Diana Taurasi adding 14 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists. Similarly, Sophie Cunningham contributed with 13 points and 5 rebounds. Whereas, Natasha Mack and Liz Dixon (off the bench) looked stronger on the offense with 10 and 5 rebounds respectively.

On the other hand, the season has been treating Minnesota quite well. They have a 5-2 record 15 days into the season. Napheesa Collier dropped a double-double in the game with 14 points and 11 rebounds. In addition, Courtney Williams contributed 11 points, 3 rebounds, and 5 assists within 19 minutes on the floor. Besides Zandalasini, another off-the-bench performance came from Dorka Juhasz who scored 13 points and 4 rebounds in 16 minutes on the floor.

The next opponents for both teams come locked and loaded on Monday as Minnesota will be locking horns with Dallas while the Mercury will be going against Los Angeles. Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato had to say about the marketing genius, watch this video.