There were more Dallas Wings jerseys in the crowd for Sunday afternoon’s Toronto Tempo game than usual for an away team. Yet, when the 2025 and 2026 WNBA No. 1 overall draft picks are in town, that can be expected.
For the first time, Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd played WNBA basketball in Toronto, with their Wings winning 89-76 over the Tempo.
The Tempo also suffered a last-minute scratch to their starting lineup after Julie Allemand injured her foot before the game. Tima Pouye was inserted into the lineup in her place, but without Allemand and Kiki Rice, who is still healing from an ankle sprain, the Tempo had no true point guard.
“I don’t like these surprises just before the game,” head coach Sandy Brondello said after the game. “It kind of hurt us because we had no point guards, and you could tell out there.”
“We had to go a bit of a point guard by committee today,” shooting guard Kia Nurse said. “Ultimately, we prepare for games the same way every single day, and whoever is or isn’t out, you can’t really put too much stock into it.”
With Allemand out, and the Tempo still missing Rice and Brittney Sykes, they had to activate their newest development player, Ornella Bankole. The Tempo signed Bankole to a development contract last week out of Europe, where she plays with Casademont Zaragoza in Spain. Due to the limited amount of games WNBA teams can play development players, Brondello didn’t expect Bankole to be active Sunday.
“I thought she came in and just played hard,” Brondello said of her newest player. “[She doesn’t] really know a lot of our stuff. [She’s] been here for a hot minute, the leaders out there are trying to help her.
“Just play hard, you know? [She’s] been here enough time, and I thought, for the minutes, she gave some good energy.”
Despite the effort to make up for the depleted backcourt, the Tempo were not able to overcome the star power of the Dallas Wings. The Wings won the rebounding game 42-35, and a 22-point performance from Bueckers paired with 17 from Fudd tipped the game in their favour.
For the Tempo, their leading scorer was Marina Mabrey with 19 points, and Nurse came off the bench to score 12 for Toronto. Maria Conde’s 10 rebounds was a season-high for the Spanish wing as well.
While this was the first time Bueckers and Fudd played in Toronto for the Wings, it wasn’t the first time fans have seen them hoop north of the border. In December 2023, their UConn Huskies came to play against now-Tempo assistant coach Carly Clarke and her TMU Bold women’s basketball program. That was also a homecoming game for then-UConn guard and Canadian Aaliyah Edwards, who now plays in the WNBA for the Connecticut Sun.
“Canada, Toronto specifically, loves women’s basketball, loves sports in general,” Bueckers said before the game on Sunday. “Really happy that there’s a team here. Aaliyah always talks about how proud she is to be from here, and how it’s a family, and how everybody rides for each other, so I’m happy to be here.”
Sunday’s game is the only time this season the Wings will be in Toronto, specifically. They will be back in Canada later in the week to face the Tempo in Montreal for the first of the Tempo’s Cross Canada series.
That game has the potential to break a WNBA record for attendance, as Montreal’s Bell Centre can hold over 22,000 fans.
Before that, the Tempo host the Golden State Valkyries at Coca-Cola Coliseum on Wednesday. The hope is that Allemand will be healthy for that game.
“I hope it’s just a one-day thing,” Brondello said after the game.
