Tempo vs. Sun: Marina Mabrey Ties WNBA Single-Game Record With Nine 3-Pointers in 101-97 Comeback

Marina Mabrey let a 26-footer fly with 1:03 left and Toronto up one, and by then the Mohegan Sun crowd could have recited the ending from memory. It was her ninth 3-pointer of Friday night, tying the WNBA single-game record, and it shoved the Tempo ahead 97-93 in a game they had once trailed by 16.

Mabrey finished with a career-high 37 points, and the expansion Toronto Tempo left Uncasville with a 101-97 win over the Connecticut Sun. Toronto scored 37 in the fourth quarter alone. Her final line and her team's final frame landing on the same number is the kind of detail a script editor would cut for being too cute.

Sixteen Down and Nobody Panicking

The first 20 minutes offered no hint of any of this. Toronto did strike first, turning an 11-8 deficit into an 18-11 lead with 10 straight points, but Connecticut replied with 11 in a row and took a 24-20 edge out of the opening quarter. The real damage came in the second: a 14-0 Sun run that went from 30-28 to 44-28 in under five minutes. Halftime arrived at 50-37, with Connecticut getting more or less whatever it wanted around the rim.

The Sun stretched it to 52-37 early in the third before Toronto found a pulse, scoring nine straight to get within six at the 6:54 mark. Connecticut never let the gap close all the way, carrying a 74-64 lead into the fourth and still sitting on an 88-77 cushion with 5:52 to play. For a team that had dropped six in a row, that should have been the moment to exhale. Instead, it was the last time anyone in a Sun jersey felt good about anything.

The Night Marina Mabrey Stopped Missing

Mabrey's line reads like a typo. She went 14-of-24 from the floor and 9-of-12 from deep, never attempted a free throw, and added four rebounds and four assists in 33 minutes. Twenty-one of her 37 came in the fourth quarter. She also coughed up six turnovers, and it did not matter even slightly, because her plus-21 was the best mark in the building. All by herself, she made three more 3s than the entire Connecticut roster, and she needed 10 fewer attempts to do it.

There is a real argument that this was a math problem more than a basketball game. Toronto lost the paint, lost the turnover battle and barely went to the line. It just kept taking 3s until the arithmetic stopped being survivable, and Mabrey was the one holding the calculator.

She had real help, too. Temi Fagbenle was ruthless, shooting 8-of-9 overall and 2-of-2 from 3 for 19 points and nine rebounds without a single turnover. Maria Conde came off the bench for 19 and six boards, hitting five of her eight 3s before going a perfect 4-of-4 at the line in the last 18 seconds. Julie Allemand scored only four but ran the whole operation with nine assists, and Isabelle Harrison quietly stuffed the box score with 15 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Connecticut's side of the sheet deserved a better ending. Kennedy Burke scored 18 off the bench and went 6-of-6 at the line. Brittney Griner had 16 points and eight rebounds on 7-of-11 shooting, Leila Lacan scored 16 on 16 shots, and Olivia Nelson-Ododa added 13 in just 16 minutes. Aneesah Morrow pulled down 10 rebounds. Put all that together and you have a winning night against most opponents, just not against a 56 percent shooting night from behind the arc.

Two Minutes That Flipped Uncasville

Everything turned on that 88-77 score. Toronto rattled off 12 straight between the 5:52 and 3:45 marks, and the biggest pieces before the go-ahead bucket belonged to Fagbenle, who drained a 13-footer and then a 24-foot 3 to make it 88-87. Mabrey's driving layup flipped the lead at 89-88, and a game that had been one-sided for three quarters became a coin flip.

Nobody could hold it after that. Griner scored, Mabrey scored, and Aaliyah Edwards sank two free throws to put Connecticut back up 92-91 with 2:41 left. Conde answered with a 25-footer for a 94-92 lead, Griner made one at the line, and then came Mabrey's 26-footer off a Harrison feed. Lacan's free throws cut it to 97-95, but Conde went to the line twice and did not miss. Diamond Miller's layup with 0.6 seconds left only set the final margin.

Stats That Matter

• 19-of-34: Toronto from 3-point range, good for 56 percent. Connecticut shot 6-of-22.
• 37-23: The fourth-quarter score, which is how a 10-point hole turns into a four-point win.
• 54-32: Connecticut's edge in the paint. The Sun also won points off turnovers 20-7 and shot 26 free throws to Toronto's nine, and lost anyway.
• 27 assists: Toronto's total on 37 made field goals, with Allemand's nine leading the way.

Where This Leaves Both Teams

The Tempo are 8-8, back at .500 after a three-game skid that included blowout losses to Atlanta and Indiana, and they are 4-5 on the road. This was also their second win over Connecticut this month, following a 106-102 decision in Toronto on June 10. A trip to Atlanta comes next on Monday, so Mabrey gets a couple of days to enjoy this one.

For the Sun, it is seven straight losses, a 2-15 record and a 1-7 mark at home. Few things sting like a big lead evaporating in your own gym, and Chicago arrives Monday with no interest in offering sympathy.

Mabrey also has company in the record book. Las Vegas' Chelsea Gray tied the same WNBA mark with nine 3-pointers against Portland on June 11.

Not Quite Connecticut's Tempo

Terence Fletcher spent all of Whiplash demanding that somebody, anybody, find the right tempo. Connecticut had it for three quarters. Then an expansion team with that exact name, and a shooter who suddenly could not miss, changed the time signature on them, and there was nothing left for the Sun to do but watch the ninth one fall.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details as reported by the Associated Press.