# 1998 Washington Mystics season

The 1998 WNBA season was the first for the Washington Mystics.

## Transactions
### WNBA allocation draft

| Player | Nationality | School/Team/Country |
| Alessandra Santos de Oliveira | Brazil | Comense (Italy) |
| Nikki McCray | United States | Columbus Quest |

### WNBA expansion draft

| Player | Nationality | Former WNBA Team |
| Tammy Jackson | United States | Houston Comets |
| Deborah Carter | United States | Utah Starzz |
| Penny Moore | United States | Charlotte Sting |
| Heidi Burge | United States | Los Angeles Sparks |

### WNBA draft

| Round | Pick | Player | Nationality | School/Team/Country |
| 1 | 3 | Murriel Page | United States | Florida |
| 2 | 13 | Rita Williams | United States | UConn |
| 3 | 23 | Angela Hamblin | United States | Iowa |
| 4 | 33 | Angela Jackson | United States | Texas |

### Transactions

| Date | Transaction |
| December 29, 1997 | Hired Jim Lewis as Head Coach |
| January 27, 1998 | Drafted Alessandra Santos de Oliveira and Nikki McCray in the 1998 WNBA Allocation Draft |
| February 18, 1998 | Drafted Tammy Jackson, Deborah Carter, Penny Moore and Heidi Burge in the 1998 WNBA expansion draft |
| April 29, 1998 | Drafted Murriel Page, Rita Williams, Angela Hamblin and Angela Jackson in the 1998 WNBA Draft |
| June 23, 1998 | Waived Tammy Jackson |
| July 24, 1998 | Fired Jim Lewis as Head Coach |
| July 24, 1998 | Hired Cathy Parsons as Interim Head Coach |
| July 31, 1998 | Waived Angela Jackson and Leila Sobral |
| July 31, 1998 | Signed Leslie Johnson and Margo Graham |

## Schedule
### Regular season

1998 game log Total: 3–27 (Home: 2–12; Road: 1–15) :
June: 1–7 (Home: 1–2; Road: 0–5)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
1
June 11
@ Charlotte
L 57–83
Nikki McCray (19)
Carter Moore (4)
Nikki McCray (6)
Charlotte Coliseum
0–1
2
June 13
@ Utah
L 77–78
Nikki McCray (26)
Alessandra Santos de Oliveira (18)
Nikki McCray (5)
Delta Center
0–2
3
June 15
@ Phoenix
L 54–69
Nikki McCray (20)
Murriel Page (11)
Nikki McCray (4)
America West Arena
0–3
4
June 19
Utah
W 85–76
Nikki McCray (29)
Alessandra Santos de Oliveira (7)
Nikki McCray (6)
MCI Center
1–3
5
June 21
Detroit
L 57–70
Penny Moore (18)
Alessandra Santos de Oliveira (11)
Nikki McCray (3)
MCI Center
1–4
6
June 25
@ Detroit
L 71–79
Nikki McCray (23)
Murriel Page (10)
McCray Moore Page (4)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
1–5
7
June 28
Phoenix
L 69–86
Murriel Page (18)
Murriel Page (9)
Nikki McCray (5)
MCI Center
1–6
8
June 29
@ Houston
L 48–73
Alessandra Santos de Oliveira (16)
Murriel Page (7)
Adrienne Shuler (4)
Compaq Center
1–7 :
July: 1–11 (Home: 0–6; Road: 1–5)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
9
July 1
Cleveland
L 80–92
Nikki McCray (19)
Alessandra Santos de Oliveira (9)
Moore Williams (4)
MCI Center
1–8
10
July 3
@ New York
L 60–76
Nikki McCray (16)
Murriel Page (7)
Keri Chaconas (5)
Madison Square Garden
1–9
11
July 5
New York
L 61–62 (OT)
Nikki McCray (15)
Murriel Page (14)
Rita Williams (4)
MCI Center
1–10
12
July 8
@ Cleveland
L 65–77
Nikki McCray (14)
Nikki McCray (7)
Penny Moore (5)
Gund Arena
1–11
13
July 11
@ Detroit
W 78–53
Nikki McCray (21)
Alessandra Santos de Oliveira (14)
Adrienne Shuler (5)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
2–11
14
July 13
@ Houston
L 67–81
McCray Santos de Oliveira (14)
Alessandra Santos de Oliveira (12)
Nikki McCray (4)
Compaq Center
2–12
15
July 17
@ Charlotte
L 56–86
Burge Chaconas (10)
Penny Moore (8)
Chaconas Shuler (5)
Charlotte Coliseum
2–13
16
July 19
Utah
L 88–99
Nikki McCray (26)
Murriel Page (7)
Burge Chaconas Shuler (2)
MCI Center
2–14
17
July 21
Charlotte
L 67–84
Penny Moore (17)
Penny Moore (11)
Penny Moore (5)
MCI Center
2–15
18
July 22
@ Detroit
L 61–76
Keri Chaconas (10)
Murriel Page (8)
Rita Williams (3)
The Palace of Auburn Hills
2–16
19
July 26
Sacramento
L 65–79
Nikki McCray (27)
Murriel Page (8)
McCray Shuler (3)
MCI Center
2–17
20
July 29
Los Angeles
L 68–77
Nikki McCray (18)
Murriel Page (10)
Nikki McCray (4)
MCI Center
2–18 :
August: 1–9 (Home: 1–4; Road: 0–5)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
21
August 1
New York
L 53–67
Keri Chaconas (11)
McCray Page (7)
Heidi Burge (3)
MCI Center
2–19
22
August 3
@ Los Angeles
L 72–86
Penny Moore (18)
Burge Page Williams (6)
Burge Moore (4)
Great Western Forum
2–20
23
August 4
@ Phoenix
L 59–88
Heidi Burge (19)
Nikki McCray (9)
Nikki McCray (5)
America West Arena
2–21
24
August 7
@ Sacramento
L 55–76
Nikki McCray (11)
McCray Page (6)
Rita Williams (4)
ARCO Arena
2–22
25
August 9
Los Angeles
W 76–74
Nikki McCray (21)
Murriel Page (8)
Adrienne Shuler (5)
MCI Center
3–22
26
August 12
Cleveland
L 55–75
Nikki McCray (19)
Deborah Carter (8)
Keri Chaconas (4)
MCI Center
3–23
27
August 13
@ New York
L 45–88
Nikki McCray (21)
Heidi Burge (6)
Nikki McCray (3)
Madison Square Garden
3–24
28
August 15
@ Cleveland
L 71–90
McCray Page (19)
Murriel Page (8)
Rita Williams (8)
Gund Arena
3–25
29
August 17
Houston
L 65–110
Nikki McCray (20)
Deborah Carter (7)
McCray Williams (3)
MCI Center
3–26
30
August 19
Charlotte
L 69–105
Nikki McCray (20)
Murriel Page (9)
Nikki McCray (9)
MCI Center
3–27 :
1998 season schedule :

### Season standings

| Eastern Conference | W | L | PCT | Conf. | GB |
| Cleveland Rockers $^x$ | 20 | 10 | .667 | 12–4 | – |
| Charlotte Sting $^x$ | 18 | 12 | .600 | 11–5 | 2.0 |
| New York Liberty $^o$ | 18 | 12 | .600 | 8–8 | 2.0 |
| Detroit Shock $^o$ | 17 | 13 | .567 | 8–8 | 3.0 |
| Washington Mystics $^o$ | 3 | 27 | .100 | 1–15 | 17.0 |

## Statistics
### Regular Season

| Player | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | SPG | BPG | PPG |
| Nikki McCray | 29 | 28 | 33.4 | .419 | .319 | .748 | 2.9 | 3.1 | 1.5 | 0.1 | 17.7 |
| Murriel Page | 30 | 30 | 31.8 | .479 | .000 | .631 | 6.9 | 1.3 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 8.3 |
| Alessandro Santos de Oliveira | 16 | 12 | 30.1 | .516 | N/A | .463 | 8.1 | 0.1 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 11.0 |
| Penny Moore | 29 | 26 | 26.1 | .344 | .207 | .717 | 3.7 | 1.6 | 1.5 | 0.7 | 8.2 |
| Rita Williams | 30 | 18 | 23.7 | .320 | .214 | .633 | 2.2 | 2.3 | 2.1 | 0.1 | 4.4 |
| Heidi Burge | 30 | 15 | 16.7 | .509 | .286 | .597 | 3.3 | 0.9 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 6.7 |
| Deborah Carter | 29 | 6 | 15.0 | .271 | .245 | .808 | 2.2 | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 3.8 |
| Adrienne Shuler | 25 | 12 | 14.5 | .369 | .342 | .824 | 2.1 | 1.9 | 0.9 | 0.1 | 3.6 |
| Keri Chaconas | 30 | 1 | 13.2 | .297 | .286 | .788 | 0.8 | 1.3 | 0.4 | 0.0 | 4.8 |
| La'Shawn Brown | 22 | 2 | 12.4 | .342 | N/A | .515 | 2.5 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.9 | 2.0 |
| Tammy Jackson | 2 | 0 | 7.0 | .667 | N/A | .000 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 |
| Margo Graham | 9 | 0 | 5.4 | .421 | N/A | .500 | 1.4 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 2.0 |
| Angela Jackson | 7 | 0 | 5.1 | .500 | N/A | .667 | 0.6 | 0.0 | 0.1 | 0.3 | 1.4 |
| Leila Sobral | 15 | 0 | 4.7 | .250 | .273 | .667 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 1.7 |
| Leslie Johnson | 6 | 0 | 2.5 | .500 | N/A | N/A | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 |
$^‡$Waived/Released during the season $^†$Traded during the season $^≠$Acquired during the season