‘Will not remember this game because of basketball’: Tempo soak in pre-season opener

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Starting lineups were introduced, and the energy kicked up a few notches. Tempo guard Kia Nurse, from Hamilton, received the honour of being announced last, and the sellout crowd of 8,210 offered a loud roar welcoming back their hometown star.

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Then, with the blow of a whistle and a jump ball, everything changed. The WNBA officially arrived in Toronto.

“It was not (a) beautiful game, but the crowd obviously didn’t care,” Tempo forward Laura Juskaite said. “They cheered us loud. I will not remember this game because of basketball. I will remember this game because of the crowd and how they loved us tonight.”

Griner scored the first bucket in the history of the building, a layup at the 9:13 mark of the first quarter.

Fittingly, it was Nurse who landed the first Tempo basket, swishing a three-pointer and sending the crowd into a frenzy, perhaps even forcing an ensuing Sun turnover.

At the end of the first quarter, with the game tied at 20 and on the heels of a 9-0 Tempo run, the boisterous masses rose for a standing ovation.

By early in the third quarter, Toronto opened up a 10-point lead and seemed to be in control.

However, the Sun clawed back to take a four-point lead late in the fourth quarter on a pull-up three-pointer from second-year forward Aneesah Morrow, who led the team with 19 points off the bench and added seven rebounds.

Morrow also had a key steal and layup with 48.4 seconds remaining to put the Sun up six.

Before the game could be fully sealed, the crowd made a late impact as Connecticut’s Gianna Kneepkens missed a pair of clutch free throws amid deafening noise, but Morrow grabbed the rebound on the second, and Charlisse Leger-Walker converted 1-of-2 after an intentional foul to restore the two-possession lead.

“They were super active, so it was really cool to have them behind us just from warmups. It was really fun,” said guard Lexi Held, who led Toronto with 18 points.

None of top expansion pick Julie Allemand (reconditioning), core player Marina Mabrey (back) or reported million-dollar signing Brittney Sykes (right hip) suited up for the game, but all are expected to be good to go for the home opener May 8.

Forward Nyara Sabally left the game with a head injury in the second quarter and did not return.

Eventually, it seemed the short-handed Tempo just ran out of gas. But head coach Sandy Brondello said it wasn’t about the result.

“For me, it wasn’t about the final box score. It was about the chemistry that they showed and how it all worked together, so that was good,” Brondello said. “They’ll all play next game, so that will be fun to add more pieces. And then we’ve still got a few more to come. So we’ve still go to do a little bit of puzzle-making, but we’ll make it work.”

Throughout the grey-and-blue seats at what doubles as the home arena for the PWHL’s Toronto Sceptres and AHL’s Toronto Marlies, men, women, boys and girls filled the stands with excitement, many already rocking the blue-and-purple Tempo colour scheme.

“It’s really an honour to be here,” said Julia Phillips, a girl who was there with a basketball teammate and on the hunt for a Kiki Rice jersey.

“It’s pretty amazing for women’s sports and basketball,” added mom Patti Phillips.

Their crew had already purchased a 10-pack of regular-season tickets, and Julia might get out to an additional game with her team.

Even in defeat, the crowd rose one last time for a standing ovation after the final buzzer. Then, plenty crowded the walkway that players go through toward the locker room.

One woman got a picture with Mabrey, leading her friend to exclaim, “What a year! First Billie Jean, and now this,” seemingly putting the Tempo star in the tennis icon’s company.

Sykes basically sprinted up and down both aisles of the walkway, offering every fan a high-five.

Earlier, a pre-game hype video that showed behind-the-scenes footage of the warp-speed draft and free-agency process ended with the slogan The Future Starts Now.

Indeed. And it truly begins next Friday, when the Tempo host the Washington Mystics in their regular-season opener.

“We hope it to be even louder,” Brondello said. “That’s a real game.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2026.

Myles Dichter, The Canadian Press