PHOENIX (AP) — Georgia Amoore scored 16 of her career-high 25 points in the fourth quarter, Kiki Iriafen added 20 points and 12 rebounds for her 19th double-double of the season and the Washington Mystics beat the Phoenix Mercury 80-73 on Thursday night.
Washington (24-15) moved into sixth in the WNBA standings with the win and New York's loss to Golden State earlier Thursday.
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Phoenix Mercury guard-forward Kahleah Copper (2) drives to the basket against Washington Mystics guard Alicia Florez, left, and Mystics forward Michaela Onyenwere (12) during the first half of a WNBA basketball game, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Washington Mystics guard Alicia Florez (2) gets fouled by Phoenix Mercury guard Lexi Held (10) during the first half of a WNBA basketball game, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Phoenix Mercury guard-forward Kahleah Copper, right, drives past Washington Mystics center Shakira Austin (0) to score during the first half of a WNBA basketball game, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Washington Mystics head coach Sydney Johnson, right, talks with Mystics guard Sonia Citron during the first half of a WNBA basketball game against the Phoenix Mercury, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Washington Mystics center Shakira Austin, center, shoots over Phoenix Mercury forward Valeriane Ayayi (11) as Mercury guard Sami Whitcomb (33) looks on during the first half of a WNBA basketball game, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Washington trailed 63-53 with 8:17 left in the fourth before going on a 17-2 run and taking a 70-65 lead.
Amoore made 3-pointers on back-to-back possessions to give the Mystics a 78-73 lead with 1:18 left. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton sealed it by making two free throws with 28.1 seconds left, stretching the lead to seven points.
Amoore finished with a career-high six 3-pointers, helping to easily eclipse her previous best of 14 points in a game. Shakira Austin added 11 points for Washington.
Kahleah Copper led Phoenix (13-26) with 35 points on 13-of-22 shooting. Copper became the fastest player in franchise history to score 2,000 points with Phoenix, doing so in 103 games, a game quicker than Diana Taurasi and Cappie Pondexter.
Phoenix guard Lexi Held banked in a 3-pointer while being fouled with 2:06 left in the third and she made the free throw to give Phoenix its first lead, 54-51, since it was 15-13. Held had a chance for a seven-point possession after the foul was upgraded to a Flagrant 1, but she was short on a 3-point attempt.
Mystics: At Los Angeles on Friday.
Mercury: Host Toronto on Saturday.
See AP’s full WNBA coverage here
Phoenix Mercury guard-forward Kahleah Copper (2) drives to the basket against Washington Mystics guard Alicia Florez, left, and Mystics forward Michaela Onyenwere (12) during the first half of a WNBA basketball game, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Washington Mystics guard Alicia Florez (2) gets fouled by Phoenix Mercury guard Lexi Held (10) during the first half of a WNBA basketball game, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Phoenix Mercury guard-forward Kahleah Copper, right, drives past Washington Mystics center Shakira Austin (0) to score during the first half of a WNBA basketball game, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Washington Mystics head coach Sydney Johnson, right, talks with Mystics guard Sonia Citron during the first half of a WNBA basketball game against the Phoenix Mercury, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Washington Mystics center Shakira Austin, center, shoots over Phoenix Mercury forward Valeriane Ayayi (11) as Mercury guard Sami Whitcomb (33) looks on during the first half of a WNBA basketball game, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
CHICLAYO, Peru (AP) — Pope Leo XIV returned Friday to his beloved former diocese of Chiclayo and said it was a “joy” to be home, an emotional return underscoring his love for his Peruvian flock and their pride that their shepherd now runs the Catholic Church.
The pontiff, known here as “Padre Roberto,” arrived at Chiclayo’s airport on the Pacific coast and immediately headed to a vast, dusty field outside Chiclayo for his first Mass on Peruvian soil. The Vatican estimated 1 million people had lined his motorcade route to the Mass and that 500,000 attended.
They cheered wildly when Leo arrived and looped through the crowd in his popemobile, under a scorching sun and temperatures of 31 degrees Celsius (88 degrees Fahrenheit).
“What a joy it is to return to Chiclayo!” Leo said. “It is a blessing for me to be with you once again,” he said, thanking the faithful especially for their prayers during his recent hospitalization for lung cancer. He declared that “with God’s help, I am overcoming” the health scare.
Chiclayo, population 700,000, is the commercial hub of Peru’s northern Pacific coast. But much of the world heard about it on the night of Leo’s election, May 8, 2025, when he gave Chiclayo a shoutout, in Spanish, from the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica.
And on Friday, Chiclayo welcomed its former shepherd home.
"I’m elated. He has decided to return to Chiclayo and we have him here, with us -- home,” said Julie Albujar, who woke before dawn with her sister to travel to the Mass site, where they were tasked with taking the collection. “This is a party and it’s a sign of our faith and our love for the pope.”
The former Robert Prevost spent two decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru and credits the place and its people with teaching him how to be a shepherd. Pope Francis sent the Chicago-born Augustinian to take over as bishop of Chiclayo in 2014 and he stayed until Francis summoned him to Rome in 2023 to run the Vatican's bishops' office.
In hindsight, the 2023 transfer to Rome signaled that Francis saw in Prevost a potential successor, since the job is one of the most important in the church and would give Prevost the Vatican experience that many consider necessary to be a viable contender for the papacy.
But Prevost's heart is in Chiclayo, where he remains beloved for championing social justice issues and for his closeness to the people, especially poor people, during times of crisis. And he had quite a few during his tenure: COVID-19, devastating floods, and a surge of Venezuelan migrants as the humanitarian situation worsened there in 2018.
“I’m so glad he’s returning,” said Rolando Antonio Mendoza, who was selling posters bearing the pope’s image in front of the cathedral where Leo used to celebrate Mass. “Even though he’s now Pope Leo XIV, he hasn’t forgotten about his homeland.”
Nearby, the El Trébol proudly calls itself the pope's restaurant, and his image is displayed in framed photos of Prevost riding a horse, wading through the mud in rubber boots and celebrating his birthday with a cake.
A sign on his favorite table — No. 3 — with a view of the cathedral reads: “mesa bendita” – Spanish for blessed table. Like many other places around the city, the restaurant sells “Papaletas” or “Pop(e)sicles" with Leo's image in white chocolate.
Just a few steps from the restaurant, a life-size cardboard cutout of the pope now welcomes visitors to his former residence at the diocese, where an exhibit displays the amaranth purple, scarlet and white zucchettos, or skullcaps, that he wore as bishop, cardinal and now pope.
Ever since Leo touched down on Peruvian soil on Wednesday, the world has seen a very different pope.
Normally reserved and placid, the 71-year-old Leo has seemed at turns positively giddy and overwhelmed with emotion to the point of tears, as was the case on Friday.
Chiclayo seminarian Darwin Sánchez, who carried the pope’s miter during the Mass, said Leo greeted all the servers before Mass and was “very moved.”
“It was truly touching; thank God everything went well,” he said.
It wasn't Sánchez's first run-in with Leo. He recalled a Mass when, as a young altar boy, he mishandled the censer and passed it onto the man who was then bishop of Chiclayo.
After the service, Prevost took him aside and affectionately told him to be a bit more careful: Prevost had burned his hand when the chain fell into the hot charcoal, but he kept carrying it and didn’t complain or reprimand Sánchez in front of others.
“He’s approachable, happy and he gave me the strength and courage to follow my vocation,” Sánchez said.
As the Mass ended, the crowd erupted into a chant that reaffirmed their pride in calling the spiritual leader of more than 1.4 billion Catholics their own:
“El papa es Chiclayano!” they joyously yelled in Spanish: “The pope is Chiclayano.”
After Mass, Leo went to pray in a chapel dedicated to St. Oscar Romero, beloved among the working class and poor for defending them against repression by El Salvador’s army.
The chapel’s construction was spearheaded during Leo’s time as bishop, and its renovation was achieved through the efforts of the Rev. Edgar Rimaycuna, the pope’s personal secretary.
Leo’s decision to go there was perhaps symbolically significant.
When Prevost first arrived in Chiclayo, priests from the conservative Opus Dei movement had long had something of a monopoly on the diocese's parishes, alienating the faithful who had a more social justice bent and who were particularly devoted to Romero, according to the new biography “American Pope,” by NPR reporters Daniel Burke and Scott Detrow.
While careful not to alienate the Opus priests, Prevost worked hard to try to bring about change in the diocese to make it less the clerical model used by Opus and more a model that empowers lay people and looks out especially for the poorest, they wrote.
It was a dynamic that Prevost had embraced in the diocese of Trujillo, Peru, where he worked as a young missionary priest, said the Rev. John Lydon, a fellow Augustinian who lived with Prevost in Trujillo in those years from 1990-1999.
He said many of the Augustinians in Peru at the time had a devotion to Romero, Prevost included.
“This was before he was canonized by Pope Francis, but we always referred to him in the house in Trujillo as Santo Oscar de las Americas,” Lydon said in an interview. “So we canonized him before the church.”
AP writer Mauricio Savarese contributed from Lima.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Pope Leo XIV arrives for a meeting with bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, seminarians, synodal teams and pastoral councils at the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace in Chiclayo, Peru', on the eighth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Nuns wait for the arrival of Pope Leo XIV on the occasion of a meeting with bishops, priests, consecrated men and women, seminarians, synodal teams and pastoral councils at the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace in Chiclayo, Peru', on the eighth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to visit the San Óscar A. Romero Chapel in Chiclayo, Peru, on the eighth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV visits the San Óscar A. Romero Chapel in Chiclayo, Peru, on the eighth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Mass in Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Pope Leo XIV presides over Mass at an open space near the Pampas de Pimentel in Pimentel, Peru, on the eighth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Mass at an open space near the Pampas de Pimentel in Pimentel, Peru, on the eighth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Mass in Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Mass in Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)
Pope Leo XIV arrives to preside over Mass at an open space near the Pampas de Pimentel in Pimentel, Peru, on the eighth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
The faithful await a Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV after spending the night at Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Nuns prepare ciboria containing Communion wafers ahead of a Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV in Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
The faithful await a Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV after spending the night at Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
The faithful hold letters spelling the Spanish word for "Welcome" ahead of a Mass celebrated by Pope Leo XIV in Pampas de Pimentel, near Chiclayo, Peru, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A cutout of Pope Leo XIV is displayed outside a restaurant in Chiclayo, Peru, where the pontiff served as bishop, Friday, Nov. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)
People take a selfie with a sign of Pope Leo XIV in Chiclayo, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
Faithful cheer during a prayer vigil led by Pope Leo XIV at the National Stadium in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV leaves at the end of a prayer vigil at the National Stadium in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
Pope Leo XIV catches a stuffed lion as he arrives to lead a prayer vigil at the National Stadium in Lima, on the seventh day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)
