The Toronto Tempo aim to use the energy from another big Montreal crowd Sunday afternoon against the New York Liberty to end a four-game losing streak.
The expansion Tempo (9-13) lost the first of two home games at Montreal, 108-95 to the Dallas Wings before a WNBA regular-season record crowd of 20,966 fans on Friday night at the Bell Centre. The previous record of 20,711 was set in 2024 in Washington.
“Being the only team in Canada, it’s a responsibility for us and how cool is that,” Tempo coach Sandy Brondello said. “We get to be seen all over Canada.”
Marina Mabrey scored 34 points for the Tempo on Friday despite early foul trouble, but the Wings dominated the fourth quarter 24-10.
Rookie forward Laura Juskaite added a career-best 25 points.
“I thought the atmosphere was fantastic,” Brondello said. “It’s great to be up here and have the fans come out and support the WNBA and the Tempo.”
The Tempo will be facing a team also trying to get back on the winning track. New York (13-10) lost its second straight Saturday afternoon 90-85 to the Minnesota Lynx to open a four-game road trip. The Liberty lost for the sixth time in their past eight games despite 25 points, eight rebounds and five assists from Sabrina Ionescu.
The Tempo’s fourth-quarter struggles could be the result of injuries to some key players. Nyara Sabally (left knee) joined the list on Friday. Already out were Temi Fagbenle (concussion protocol), Kiki Rice (left ankle) and Brittney Sykes (left foot).
“We had four of our main players out, but we fought hard,” Brondello said. “We just ran out of gas, didn’t have enough in the tank to finish it off. But credit to Dallas.”
The Liberty were without Leonie Fiebich (left foot) and Satou Sabally (concussion protocol) on Saturday.
They trailed by 15 with 5:14 left in the third quarter before rallying to take a one-point lead into the fourth quarter.
“We just have to stop digging ourselves these very big, very deep holes that we have to get out of,” said New York center Jonquel Jones, who had 15 points and 12 rebounds. “If we could stop doing that and mitigate that and then put our second half together that we’ve been doing, we’ll be great.”
Breanna Stewart added 17 points and seven rebounds for New York.
The Liberty defeated the Tempo 97-82 on June 3 at New York.
–Field Level Media
