The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Ariel Atkins wins 2019 WNBA Championship with Washington Mystics
10.10.2019 | Women's Basketball
Atkins starred for the Longhorns from 2014-18.
WASHINGTON – Former Texas women's basketball player Ariel Atkins (2014-18), in her second season with the Washington Mystics, is now a WNBA Champion. The Mystics captured the first WNBA Championship in franchise history on Thursday night at Entertainment and Sports Arena with an 89-78 victory over the Connecticut Sun in the fifth game of a best-of-five series.
She becomes the third player in Texas history to win a WNBA Championship, joining NeKeshia Henderson (Houston, 1997 and 2000) and Fran Harris (Houston, 1997).
Atkins has completed her second season with the Washington Mystics after being selected by the team with the seventh overall pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft. She is a two-time member of the WNBA All-Defensive Second Team.
In the 2019 regular season, Atkins played in 33 games with 33 starts, averaging 10.3 points per game, 2.8 rebounds per game, 1.9 assists per game and 1.5 steals per game.
Atkins was a three-time All-Big 12 Conference player and a four-time member of the Academic All-Big 12 teams at Texas. She played in 121 career games with 100 starts, scoring in double figures on 81 occasions. She scored 1,497 career points and finished with a career free-throw percentage of 83.1.
