WASHINGTON — Sunday’s game between the Liberty and Washington Mystics wasn’t pretty.

But it was a win — albeit an all-around frustrating one.

Despite the game’s stop-and-go nature, the foul calls and squandering a 12-point second-half lead, the Liberty ultimately found a way to spoil the Mystics’ home opener.

Coach Chris DeMarco called the 98-93 overtime win “gutsy” and believes the team’s resilience through the end “says a lot about the character of our team.”

The game was clunky. The Liberty were whistled for 31 personal fouls to the Mystics’ 27. Jonquel Jones fouled out with 3:25 left in the fourth quarter, followed by Han Xu, who exited with 1:22 left in overtime.

“Not gonna lie, it’s tough,” DeMarco said of having to end the game without two centers. “They fought for everything and to pull out this one, yeah, it was ugly, but again, says a lot about our character and that’s something we’ll have to fix.”

The Liberty knew they were facing a challenge in a young, blossoming Mystics team. Not only was it the home opener, but DeMarco noted that “youth equals chaos.” The Liberty anticipated the Mystics would speed New York up.

The Liberty led for most of the game. Cassandre Prosper’s go-ahead basket at the 7:58 mark of the fourth quarter gave the Mystics their first lead since the second quarter.

The game had five lead changes and five ties during the rest of regulation, resulting in overtime.

Kiki Iriafen’s putback basket tied the game at 92 with 33.5 seconds left.

Betnijah Laney-Hamilton made two free throws after Prosper fouled her on a layup with 29.6 seconds left.

Marine Johannès forced Sonia Citron into a turnover. Rookie Pauline Astier sealed the Liberty’s win with two free throws as a “ref you suck” chant echoed throughout the arena.

Johannès continued her hot start, leading all scorers with 25 points after making six 3-pointers, including one in overtime.

Breanna Stewart finished with 23 points, nine rebounds and four assists.

The Liberty started Sunday’s game much like they did Friday’s season opener.

New York was having its way on offense, pulling ahead by seven near the midway mark of the first quarter.

Then, the Liberty hit a lull. The Mystics fought their way back into the game, outscoring New York 23-9 over the final 5:13 of the first quarter to take a seven-point lead heading into the second.

“We were getting stops, but we were just missing box-outs if I’m being honest,” Jones said. “We liked the defenses that we were in, especially our zone. It felt very advantageous for us, but we just could not finish the possession. We got them to miss multiple times, which is exactly what you want a team to do but we just couldn’t finish possessions.”

New York course-corrected. Johannès hit some timely 3s and the Liberty led by seven at halftime.

The Liberty were outrebounded 42-32 and conceded 19 offensive boards and 23 second-chance points to the Mystics.

“It’s something that we need to be better at,” Stewart said. “I thought given the cards that we were dealt, I think we did pretty good. We were playing OT without both of our centers and just continuing to fight through it.”

New York’s schedule isn’t particularly tough to start. The Liberty torched the Connecticut Sun by 31 points in the season opener Friday. They did enough Sunday to beat the on-the-rise Mystics, who’ve missed the playoffs the past two years.

New York heads to Portland next, where the team will play the Fire twice in three days before having a week off prior to their next home game.