While the Toronto Tempo were able to break their long losing streak against Portland in Vancouver, it’s been a tough week for them as they continue their journey through the West Coast.
After their victory over the Fire, they lost to the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday, and then again to the Seattle Storm 90-78 on Wednesday evening.
The silver lining, as it has been most of their inaugural season, has been the play of rookie Kiki Rice.
Rice, the No. 6 pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, had a career night against the Storm despite the loss. She scored 24 points on 50 per cent shooting from the field, along with five assists, three rebounds and one steal.
“I think it’s just about being ready for your opportunity,” Rice said after the game. “Obviously, we’ve had a lot of injuries, and so different people have different roles.”
Toronto’s injury report was lengthy once again as the team arrived in Seattle. Marina Mabrey will be re-evaluated in the coming days and weeks for an adductor injury. Brittney Sykes and Aneesah Morrow are out for the season with injuries they sustained in Vancouver. Nyara Sabally hurt her calf a few weeks ago and remains out.
Julie Allemand’s contract was temporarily suspended on Tuesday as well, as she leaves the Tempo to join Team Belgium for the FIBA Women’s World Cup. While the Tempo were able to welcome back Maria Conde to the lineup against Seattle, she will also now leave to go join Team Spain for their World Cup preparations as well.
With so many players out, the WNBA determined the Tempo were eligible for an emergency extreme hardship contract, which they used to sign guard Kiana Williams on Monday.
Williams is on a seven-day deal, which the league doles out on a case-by-case basis depending on injury status, development player activations remaining, and special circumstances.
All of that means other players have to step up, and Rice has been one of them, despite being a rookie. Another player to step up big in this stretch has been Isabelle Harrison, who scored 17 points with 14 rebounds in Wednesday’s game.
“I think along with the injuries that we’ve been having, a lot of voices have been out of the locker room too, so that’s exactly what I’m trying to bring,” Harrison said. “Just so we have a constant voice of what we need to do and some steadiness.”
Harrison’s 14 rebounds were a career high for the forward, who has been stepping into a larger role with the Tempo. While she started the season with an injury, she’s been a steady presence since mid-June for the team.
“We did some things well, and then other things not so well,” head coach Sandy Brondello said of her depleted team’s effort. “I think they just wore us down with so many weapons, and we didn’t execute as much.”
The Tempo now have two more games before the FIBA World Cup break – a back-to-back against Las Vegas on Friday and Phoenix on Saturday. With Allemand and Conde out of the lineup, along with the injured players, the Tempo will head into these two games with six of their regular rostered players, a hardship player in Williams, and two development players. Nine players total are currently available for the team.
After tonight, development player Ornella Bankole has three activations left on her contract, and the Tempo have seven development player activations left for the season. Once Bankole’s activations are up, the team has the option to sign her to a standard contract (which they don’t have roster space for) or a hardship contract (if they are eligible).
Along with Allemand, Conde, and Sabally if she’s healthy, Brondello is also heading to the World Cup to coach Team Australia. Associate head coach Olaf Lange will be the head coach of host country Team Germany.
Once the World Cup wraps up, the Tempo have four games left before the conclusion of the regular season.
