Toronto Tempo's Isabelle Harrison led her team on Wednesday night with 24 points and eight rebounds against the Golden State Valkyries.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
A fatigued and injury-depleted Toronto Tempo suffered their third loss in a row on Wednesday, falling 83-75 to the visiting Golden State Valkyries.
Despite rallying back from a 13-point deficit in the second half, Canada’s expansion team couldn’t finish the job against the California team having a solid second season in the league.
Isabelle Harrison led the Tempo with 24 points and eight rebounds. Marina Mabrey, who on Tuesday got her first career all-star nod, received stiff defensive attention from Golden State, who trapped and fouled her.
Toronto’s star guard had 11 points while shooting 2-of-9 from the field, doing most of her scoring from the free throw line. She was visibly frustrated, but stayed tight-lipped in her postgame comments: “I’ll keep my money.”
Julie Allemand scored nine for Toronto, with seven assists, while Maria Conde added nine points.
Marina Mabrey's breakout season makes her Tempo's first-ever All-Star
It was the fourth loss in five games for the Tempo, who fell to 9-12. This part of Toronto’s schedule is stiff. The Valkyries are held up as a model WNBA expansion franchise. In their debut season in 2025, they sold out every home game and became the first team in league history to make the playoffs in their introductory year. Off to a 16-7 start in Year 2, the Valkyries have one of the league’s top records.
Golden State’s Janelle Salaun made it tough on Toronto, notching 26 points, while Kayla Thornton had 15.
Still, there were bright spots for the Tempo, like four assists from Mabrey, and timely contributions off the bench from Teonni Key and Kia Nurse. Allemand returned to the court after being a late scratch in Toronto’s previous game on Sunday.
The team is still very hampered by injuries, worn down with very few players available to come off the bench.
Tempo guard Marina Mabrey (left) saw tight, physical defence all night against the visiting Golden State Valkyries in their Wednesday night loss at Coca-Cola Colisseum.Tara Walton/Getty Images
Starting post player Nyara Sabally left Wednesday’s game with a knee injury in the first half. The Tempo’s 6-foot-5 powerhouse in the paint who has already missed six games due to injuries this season.
The Tempo are still without three more marquee players: Kiki Rice (left ankle), Temi Fagbenle (concussion protocol) and Brittney Sykes (left foot).
“Injury has been a real Achilles heel for us,” lamented Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello. “So we haven’t really been able to evaluate what our whole team looks like, because we haven’t had it.”
Still it was a celebratory night, as the team marked Mabrey being the franchise’s first-ever All-Star. Mabrey had received the news of her selection in a phone call from WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Her team congratulated her with a big bouquet of flowers at Wednesday’s shootaround. The All-Star Game will take place July 25, and Mabrey’s whole family will go to Chicago for it and stay in a house together.
“I think when I was in high school and stuff, I was like, ‘I want to be in the WNBA, I want to be a WNBA all-star.’ I had no idea how hard it was,” said Mabrey, who gets the nod in her eighth WNBA season. “This league is so hard … it’s easy to lose that vision and that belief in yourself, but I don’t think I ever lost it.”
Brondello expressed how proud she was of Mabrey and how well deserved the honour was for a player who has dazzled with big performances, including a WNBA record-tying 53-point game this season.
However, the coach said she was disappointed that Sykes wasn’t voted an All-Star as well. Sykes was having a stellar campaign before suffering a left foot injury that has had her sidelined since mid-June.
Sykes is averaging 20.1 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.3 steals through 15 games.
“I think the numbers that she did before her injury warranted an all-star selection, just goes to show how tough our league is,” said Brondello.
Julie Allemand (left) had nine points and a game-high seven assists for the Tempo, who dropped their third in a row on Wednesday night.Tara Walton/Getty Images
“I think everyone in this organization knows she’s deserving of that. Two 38-point games, her ability to get downhill, she’s been impactful. Whether the injury had an impact on her non-selection, I don’t know, but we’re proud of what she’s done for this organization, and how she’s played.”
Things aren’t getting easier for the injury-thinned team now either, with games on deck against some of the WNBA’s biggest talents.
As part of the Tempo’s efforts to extend their reach to more Canadians, the team will now play two of their home games at Montreal’s Bell Centre – Friday against Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings and Sunday against a New York Liberty team starring Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu. In late August, they will play a pair at Vancouver’s Rogers Arena, against fellow expansion team the Portland Fire and the defending WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces.