New York, NY (AHN) - The New York Liberty withstood a late rally by the Washington Mystics to go to 2-0 for the first time since 1999 with an 81-76 WNBA victory Thursday night.

Erin Thorn and Shameka Christon each scored 17 points and Cathrine Kraayveld scored 16 to lead New York, which scored its final six points of the game on free throws.

"Last game [the Chicago Sky] were up big and we came back," Thorn told AP. "In this game, we got up and they came back. We are showing that we will take the hit, but we are coming up with the last hit."

Barbara Farris scored 11 points and Thorn had eight rebounds for New York, which made 10 3-pointers just a game after tying a franchise record with 13 in a victory over Chicago.

"We couldn't ask for a better start. We can grow as a team and build on these two wins," Christon told AP. "We have a lot of new players again, but we still have a strong core of five that played together since last year."

Alana Beard scored 23 points and DeLisha Milton-Jones had 14 points and eight rebounds for the Mystics (0-3).