The three-time WNBA Champion Phoenix Mercury today re-signed former WNBA All-Star forward Sancho Lyttle, as announce by the team.
After signing with the Mercury as a free agent prior to the 2018 season, Lyttle started in the Mercury’s first 18 games of the season before suffering a season-ending knee injury on June 30 in Washington. Prior to the injury, the 6-foot-4 forward averaged 7.9 points and 5.3 rebounds, while shooting 54.0 percent (61-of-113), her highest mark since 2008. Lyttle helped the Mercury to a WNBA-best 13-5 record to start the season, along the way notching a double-double in the team’s win at Dallas on June 12, finishing a perfect six-for-six from the field en route to 14 points and nine rebounds on June 16 and scoring a season-best 20 points on May 27 at Los Angeles, her highest scoring game since July 6, 2016 (22).
Over her 14-year career, Lyttle is a six-time WNBA All-Defensive Team selection, including a two-time First Team (2012, 2014) and four-time Second Team (2009, 2010, 2011, 2015) honoree. A former All-Star (2009), Lyttle is one of only two players in WNBA history who have led the league in steals in three seasons or more (five-time Defensive Player of the Year Tamika Catchings) and is the only power forward to do so. She is one of only four players to rank in the top-15 of the WNBA’s all-time rebounds and steals lists (Catchings, Taj McWilliams-Franklin and Yolanda Griffith), the only active player among the four.
Lyttle holds career averages of 9.2 points, 6.8 rebounds and 1.7 steals in 372 games, and has appeared in three WNBA Finals (2010, 2011, 2013) and has eight WNBA postseason appearances. While playing overseas during the WNBA offseason, she is a four-time EuroLeague champion (2011, 2012, 2014, 2016) and has medaled twice with the Spanish national team at the World Championships (2010 – bronze, 2014 – silver).
Originally the fifth overall pick of the 2005 WNBA Draft by the Houston Comets, Lyttle was then acquired by Atlanta with the first selection in the 2008 Houston dispersal draft. Prior to the WNBA, she was a two-year standout at the University of Houston where she led the nation in rebounding her senior season and earned AP All-America Honorable Mention.
After coming within one win of a trip to the WNBA Finals, the Phoenix Mercury return in 2019 in search of a league-record tying fourth WNBA title. Led by the All-Star trio of Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner and DeWanna Bonner, Phoenix opens its title quest on May 25 at Seattle on ABC. Tickets for Fry’s Food Stores Opening Night on Friday, May 31, at Talking Stick Resort Arena can be purchased by calling 602.252.WNBA or by visiting PhoenixMercury.com.