The Toronto Tempo were down by as many as 18 points on Friday night against the Washington Mystics.
In the end, they lost by a single point. Their comeback was fuelled by a rapid succession of circus shots from Marina Mabrey, bringing the Tempo back within striking distance in the final minutes.
Toronto were up one point with seconds left on the clock, but the Mystics’ Sonia Citron hit the dagger, a buzzer-beating game-winner as the Tempo dropped the game 86-85 after fighting to get back in it.
“Sometimes when you’re playing together, playing hard, good things can happen,” Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello said postgame. “We fought our way back. So we just need to put together longer stretches of consistency.
“We gave ourselves the opportunity, we fought back – just unlucky at the end. Tonight it was just a great shot by Sonia.”
Despite the close finish, the Tempo struggled through most of the game. Washington out-rebounded Toronto 39-21 and was able to outrun Toronto in the paint.
“I just wasn’t happy with how we played in the first half,” said Brondello. “Rebounding was a bit of an issue for us too.”
The game looked all but over in the fourth quarter, as the Tempo struggled to contain the size of the Mystics’ dynamic frontcourt players. Toronto’s taller players are starting to recover from several injuries, but they were still missing key names.
Nyara Sabally was out of the game with a hamstring injury, Temi Fagbenle was on a minutes restriction, and Isabelle Harrison was still ramping back up after missing over a month.
On Washington’s side, Shakira Austin scored 12 points but made 11 rebounds, showing her agility under the rim. The 6-foot-7 rookie Lauren Betts had the best night of her pro career so far, scoring 18 points off the bench for the Mystics, while Michaela Onyenwere scored 17 points.
Just when the game seemed out of reach for Toronto, in came Mabrey. With just under four minutes remaining on the clock, Mabrey made a layup. Shortly after, three free throws, followed immediately by a steal and an assist. From there, Mabrey went on a heroic soliloquy to bring Toronto back into the game.
“I mean, we all know what Marina can do; it’s not the first time that we’ve seen it,” Tempo wing Maria Conde said after the game. “When she’s going through that phase, we just want to make sure that she gets the ball in the right space, that we’re screening for her and finding the rebounding positions.”
Mabrey ended the game with 27 points on 9-for 15 shooting from the field. She added one rebound, three assists, and one steal to her stat line. Her teammates contributed on the defensive end, making stops to ensure Mabrey’s shots weren’t in vain.
“I think that’s the basketball that we want to play for 40 minutes, and not only five or six minutes,” said point guard Julie Allemand.
“It’s great, but we have to figure out a way to play like this for 30-40 minutes, it cannot be that we need her to make the shots that she made,” Conde continued. “They were crazy shots, like that’s what Marina can do. We need to do better, so that we don’t need her to do that.”
Similar to when the Tempo won their overtime thriller earlier in the week, the word “resilient” was used afterward. It’s becoming somewhat of a theme – the Tempo making exciting comebacks and never giving up.
“Well, they’re great players. I think they’re not going to give up. It shows their mindset,” Brondello said. “Things may not go well, but they can stay in the moment, and just start playing hard.
“We’ve got a lot of internationals, I think that just comes with how they play, and we play hard and we play together.”
The Tempo are back at home on Sunday afternoon to play the Atlanta Dream as their Commissioner’s Cup tournament continues. Rebounding will be top of mind in preparations, as the Dream have prolific rebounder Angel Reese ready to clean up the glass.
Brondello was hopeful after Friday’s game that Sabally would be able to return to the lineup against the Dream to help Toronto.
