The Toronto Tempo have won back-to-back games for the first time, with Brittney Sykes and Marina Mabrey combining for 61 points in a 98-90 road victory over the Phoenix Mercury on Tuesday, Field Level Media reported.
Sykes scored 31 points and Mabrey added 30 as the expansion team improved to 3-2. Toronto broke clear in the fourth quarter after a tightly contested game that included 24 lead changes and 13 ties.
The performance followed Sykes’ career-best 38 points in Toronto’s win at Los Angeles on Sunday. Against Phoenix, she made four of eight three-point attempts, while Mabrey hit six of 14.
Toronto set season highs for both three-pointers made and attempted, connecting on 15 of 36 shots from beyond the arc for a 41.7 per cent success rate. Kiki Rice contributed 15 points and Laura Juskaite scored 10. Rice and Sykes also collected seven rebounds apiece.
Neither team built a double-digit lead. Phoenix was ahead by three early in the fourth quarter, and the teams remained within four points of each other throughout the second half until Juskaite hit a three-pointer with 6:52 remaining.
That basket gave Toronto an 83-78 advantage. Sykes followed with a jumper on the Tempo’s next possession, stretching the lead to seven points — the largest margin of the game to that stage.
Phoenix kept the result in doubt. Consecutive layups by DeWanna Bonner and Alyssa Thomas brought the Mercury within 89-86 with 3:35 left, before Maria Conde and Rice answered with layups on Toronto’s next two possessions.
A Noemie Brochant three-pointer and one successful Thomas free throw trimmed Toronto’s advantage to 93-90 with 1:43 remaining. Mabrey responded with a three-pointer on the next Tempo possession.
After Kahleah Copper missed both of her free throws, Rice made one of two with 53.3 seconds left. Jovana Nogic then missed a three-point attempt, and Sykes added a free throw with 36.3 seconds remaining to complete the scoring.
Copper led Phoenix with 18 points. Thomas finished with 17 points and eight assists, while Natasha Mack recorded 12 points and 10 rebounds. Bonner and Nogic scored 13 points each as the Mercury fell to 2-3, their third loss in four games.
Toronto was missing four injured players: Isabelle Harrison with a right-hand injury, Temi Fagbenle with a right-shoulder injury, Julie Allemand with a left-hip injury and Nyara Sabally with a neck injury. Sabally leads the Tempo with averages of six rebounds and 1.5 blocks per game.
