Early on during Friday night's Washington Mystics' game, the team lost guard Elena Delle Donne to injury. However, several of her teammates stepped up in her absence to help lead Washington to a 72-58 win over the Indiana Fever. Emma Meesseman was among the Mystics players who had a strong performance to help her team snap a three-game losing streak. Here's a look at the Mystics vs. Fever WNBA game recap as well as a standings update and what's next for these two teams.

WNBA game recap

Within just the first three minutes on the court, WNBA All-Star Elena Delle Donne went down with a sprained right ankle.

That sidelined the Washington Mystics' top star, but her teammates overcome the adversity. In particular, Emma Meesseman scored 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting, while also grabbing five rebounds, dishing out three assists, and swatting away two shots. Krystal Thomas also added 14 points on 5-for-6 shooting and had seven rebounds along with four blocked shots.

For the Indiana Fever, Briann January had 15 points in the losing effort. January was 6-for-17 from the field including just 1-of-5 three-pointers made. Tiffany Mitchell came off the bench to add 10 points while also snatching eight rebounds. No other Indiana players finished in double-digits for the game. As a team, Indiana shot just 27.3 percent from the floor, and slightly over six percent from three-point range.

Meanwhile, the Mystics shot made 23-of-60 shots which was good for 38.3 percent. The team also came out of the gates surging from the start, leading 26-11 after one quarter and 50-28 at the half. Even though Indiana outscored Washington 30-22 in the second half, it wasn't enough to overcome the double-digit lead that had been built by the visitors.

Standings & what's next

With the win, the Washington Mystics ended a three-game skid. The team moved to 11-8 overall and 4-6 on the road. They're now leading the Eastern Conference by a half-game over the Connecticut Sun. Next up for the Mystics is another road game on Sunday against the New York Liberty at 3 p.m. Eastern Time.

The Indiana Fever drop to 7-11 overall and 5-5 at home for this WNBA season. The team is currently fifth in the Eastern Conference standings and trails the New York Liberty by 1.5 games for that spot. The Fever will play again on Monday night on the road against the Los Angeles Sparks. That game is scheduled for a 10:30 p.m. Eastern Time start.
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