The Toronto Tempo are playing their second consecutive game at the Bell Centre in Montreal, this time hosting the New York Liberty in an Eastern Conference showdown on TSN.
Friday’s 108-95 loss to Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings took place in front of a WNBA record-setting crowd of 20,966 fans - something the team was proud of even if the result didn’t go in the Tempo’s favour.
“[This has] been years in the making,” Tempo forward Isabelle Harrison said after the game. “To be living in these actual conversations, to be right here, right now, it’s bigger than us.
I hope Canada is proud of us. We play every day for you guys, and we’re just really happy to be here.”
The games took place as part of the Tempo’s Cross Canada series, which features two stops in Montreal in July and two stops in Vancouver later in the season in August.
“I thought the atmosphere was fantastic. It’s great to be up here and have the fans to come out and support the WNBA and the Tempo,” head coach Sandy Brondello said after the game.
It’s been a season of firsts for the league and the team, with the Tempo playing in their inaugural campaign. The record-setting night in Montreal is a momentous occasion for basketball in the country, but the Tempo still have to focus on improving their play on the court.
As TSN’s Chelsea Leite noted earlier this week, the Tempo play the fourth-hardest schedule through the remainder of this season and the current four-game skid has seen the team drop to fifth in the Eastern Conference and 11th in the league.
Injuries have taken their fair share of the blame for the team’s struggles in the midpoint of the season. Top guard Brittney Sykes and exciting rookie Kiki Rice have both missed weeks with foot injuries, while Nyara Sabally and Temi Fagbenle are also dealing with injuries in Toronto’s front court.
“We had four of our main players out, but we fought hard,” Brondello said after the game against the Wings. “We just ran out of gas, didn’t have enough in the tank to finish it off. But credit to Dallas.”
The Tempo (9-13) have another tough task in front of them in the Liberty (13-10), who are second in the Eastern Conference and were the 2024 WNBA champions.
