If the Toronto Tempo’s injuries weren’t depleting their roster enough, the FIBA World Cup is finishing the job. Going into Friday’s game against the Las Vegas Aces – the first of a back-to-back – the Tempo had three players officially on suspended contracts due to World Cup obligations.
“I mean it is what it is, when you’re going to be down players,” head coach Sandy Brondello said after the game in Las Vegas. “Unfortunately we’ve had a lot of injuries, so it’s just a next player mentality.”
Nyara Sabally (Germany), Julie Allemand (Belgium) and Maria Conde (Spain) all headed to Germany this week to join their national squads. On top of their absences, the Tempo also went into Friday night’s game missing Marina Mabrey (adductor), Brittney Sykes (foot), and Aneesah Morrow (knee).
Due to this, the WNBA granted the Tempo a 7-day emergency hardship contract, which they used to sign Kianna Williams. The team also activated both of their development players, Ornella Bankole and Zaay Green.
“I thought Kiana did a really good job,” Brondello said of her newest player. “We went through a few more things today. I just said don’t overthink it. Go out there and play hard. You’re not going to know everything, but just communicate.’”
Once the Tempo finish out their road trip in Phoenix on Saturday, head coach Sandy Brondello (Australia) and associate head coach Olaf Lange (Germany) will also head overseas to coach their teams through the World Cup.
“I think our leadership group certainly helped [today],” Brondello said. “Kia and Izzy are helping these players. We need bodies. We’re on a back-to-back. It was good to see Zaay today, and we’ll try and give her a little bit more minutes tomorrow.”
Still, going against the three-time WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces with a full-strength roster is already hard enough. Four-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson scored 27 points, eight rebounds, two assists, two blocks and one steal as she continues her path to a fifth MVP award. The Aces are among contenders for this season’s WNBA championship – which would mean back-to-back titles for Las Vegas and four of the last five championships.
In the end, the Tempo fell 93-73 to the Aces. Isabelle Harrison led the team with 15 points, seven rebounds, four assists and one steal, while Kiki Rice scored 10 points and Laura Juskaite had 14 of her own.
“It’s not easy. I think every game we have a different starting lineup, which doesn’t help us,” Juskaite said of being one of the only players who has been available all season. “I’m just lucky to be healthy and play all the games, and you know, take everything I can from the season.”
With both development players activated for this game, the Tempo are now down to just three activations left for their season. Each WNBA team has 24 total to use, but development players can be signed to standard contracts when their games are up as well. Once the Tempo run out of activations, and if they still qualify for a hardship contract, they could use it to convert one of their development players, Bankole or Green.
The Tempo now have a quick turnaround as they head to Phoenix to face the Mercury on Saturday. It’s their last game before the two-week FIBA World Cup break. A break the Tempo will surely need to take advantage of to see if they can get a few players back before the season resumes.
