Wings vs. Tempo: Paige Bueckers Drops 34 Before a WNBA Regular-Season Record Crowd of 20,996 in Montreal

Montreal had never hosted a WNBA game before Friday night. So naturally it hosted the biggest regular-season crowd in league history instead, and then Paige Bueckers made sure all 20,996 people at Bell Centre got their money's worth, unless they'd come to root for the home team.

Bueckers scored 34, Jessica Shepard went for 20 points and 17 rebounds, and the Dallas Wings beat the Toronto Tempo 108-95, turning a one-point deficit through three quarters into a comfortable win with a 24-10 fourth. The crowd topped the old regular-season mark of 20,711, set when Indiana visited Washington on Sept. 19, 2024. The overall league high stays at 22,076, a figure Detroit reached twice during the 2003 and 2007 Finals.

Marina Mabrey Brought the Fireworks

Toronto came out like a team that knew the whole country was watching. Marina Mabrey hit four threes and scored 17 in the first quarter alone, the Tempo went 6 of 7 from deep, and the 33-25 score was the most Dallas had allowed in a quarter since last August. Laura Juskaite grabbed the baton in the second, scoring 12 on 5-of-6 shooting as the lead reached 42-29. For a franchise trying to make a first impression, it was going about as well as it possibly could.

Dallas clawed back steadily, and Bueckers' 16-footer at the second-quarter buzzer made it 56-52. Then the third turned into pure chaos, with seven ties and six lead changes. Arike Ogunbowale opened the half with a five-point burst that gave the Wings their first lead since the opening minutes. Bueckers scored 11 in the period, Mabrey scored 13, and nobody could get more than a possession or two of breathing room. Odyssey Sims drained a three at the horn to leave it 85-84 Toronto.

Alysha Clark Picks Her Moment

The game turned on two shots from the player with the quietest line in the box score. Isabelle Harrison scored to open the fourth and make it 87-84, and then Alysha Clark hit a three at 8:21 and another at 7:42. Dallas led, and it was the start of something. Clark had been scoreless to that point and would finish with all 10 of her points, a season high, in that final quarter.

Toronto nudged back in front at 91-90, and then Bueckers took over. She finished a three-point play at 6:41, scored again at 6:20, and when Clark's bucket made it 97-91, the Tempo were in real trouble. Mabrey scored from close range at 4:51, but Ogunbowale's 23-footer at 4:34 pushed it back to 100-93. Juskaite's layup at 3:30 was the last time Toronto scored. Dallas closed on a 6-0 run, and the only drama left was whether the locals would stay to the end.

Dueling 34s

Bueckers' line was a clinic: 13 of 22 from the field, 6 of 6 at the line, six rebounds, six assists, one turnover. Those 34 points were a season high, topping the 31 she hung on Phoenix in June, and the team says it's the fourth 30-point game of her career. Shepard was just as important in a different way, going 7 of 9 over 40 minutes with six offensive rebounds for her 14th double-double of the season. Ogunbowale added 20 points and seven assists without a single turnover, and Azzi Fudd chipped in 13.

Mabrey matched Bueckers exactly at 34, needing only 27 minutes and going 6 of 9 from three and 8 of 8 at the line, though the Wings held her to two points in the fourth. Juskaite had 25 on 10-of-16 shooting, Harrison had 18 on 8 of 10, and Maria Conde had 12 points and nine assists. Toronto shot 55% for the game and lost by 13, which tells you how the last 10 minutes went.

Where 24-10 Came From

• 24-10: The fourth quarter. Those 10 points were Toronto's lowest in any quarter this season, on 5-of-14 shooting with no threes in five tries.
• 18-7: Dallas' edge in points off turnovers. The Tempo gave it away 14 times, and the Wings just seven.
• 18-3: The Wings' bench scoring advantage, with Clark and Sims doing all the damage.
• 11-4: Offensive rebounds, the source of a 15-8 edge in second-chance points.
• 12 and 14: Ties and lead changes in a game that deserved the crowd it got.

Four Straight, All on the Road

Dallas moves to 15-8 and 9-5 on the road, with four straight wins that match its longest streak of the season. All four came away from home, sweeping a trip through Connecticut, Toronto, New York and Montreal, and the team says it's the first four-game road winning streak for the Wings since 2022. They host Chicago on Sunday.

Toronto falls to 9-13 and 5-7 at home, its fourth straight loss and second to Dallas in five days. The Tempo stay put in Montreal for New York on Sunday and also have two games in Vancouver on the schedule.

Canada's Team Takes a Road Show

Tempo coach Sandy Brondello knew exactly what this night was about. "Being the only team in Canada, it's a responsibility for us and how cool is that," she said. Dallas coach Jose Fernandez saw the same thing from the other bench. "It just shows the trajectory of where the WNBA is and what the franchise in Toronto is doing for basketball fans in Canada," he said.

This building has done it before, too, having drawn 21,105 for a Montreal-Toronto game on April 20, 2024, the largest crowd in PWHL history. Brondello's pitch to the new audience was simple. "I always say, a fan has to just come and watch one game and they'll fall in love," she said. Nearly 21,000 people just took her up on it and got 203 points, a pair of 34s and a fourth quarter worth talking about on the way home. As first dates go, the ending could have gone better for the Tempo. They could hardly have asked for a better turnout.

Stats from the official box score via ESPN. Game details and quotes as reported by the Associated Press via WNBA.com, with additional details from the Dallas Wings.