Marina Mabrey scored 30 points, Nyara Sabally made the tiebreaking basket with 52 seconds left after Toronto blew a 20-point lead, and the Tempo beat the New York Liberty 93-91 on Sunday at the Bell Centre.
Mabrey had her second consecutive 30-point game and her fifth this season, including a 53-point performance — which tied the WNBA’s single-game record — in a 125-97 win over Los Angeles on June 25.
Breanna Stewart made a layup that tied it at 91-all with 1:30 to play, but Julie Allemand, who finished with 10 assists, found Sabally for the go-ahead layup as the Tempo snapped a four-game losing streak, the longest of their expansion season.
Sabrina Ionescu scored 28 points and Stewart added 22 for the Liberty (13-11), who have lost seven of their last nine. Jonquel Jones had 10 points and 10 rebounds.
Laura Juskaite had 18 points, Maria Conde scored 15 and Sabally had 13 for the Tempo (10-13), who led 74-54 late in the third quarter.
The Liberty ripped off a 16-4 run as Toronto committed five turnovers that trimmed their deficit to 84-80 when Ionescu made a layup with 5:36 to play.
The Tempo snapped a three-game skid in games which they led going into the final period. Toronto, which was outscored 27-13 in the final 10 minutes, has a minus-49 point differential in its last five fourth quarters.
The Tempo lost 108-95 against Dallas despite 34 points from Mabrey on Friday night, also at the Bell Centre in front of a WNBA regular-season record crowd of 20,996. Toronto also plays two home games at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver, British Columbia, later this season.
New York’s Betnijah Laney-Hamilton was ejected in the closing minutes for throwing a shoe at Mabrey. Laney-Hamilton and Mabrey were hit with double technical fouls after a scuffle in the third quarter.
Up next
Liberty: Play Tuesday at Dallas.
Tempo: Host Washington on Tuesday.
