VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Isabelle Harrison scored 25 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, helping the shorthanded Toronto Tempo end their 12-game losing streak with an 82-79 win against the Portland Fire on Friday night.
This marks the Tempo’s (11-25) first victory since they defeated New York 93-91 at the Bell Centre in Montreal on July 12.
The game attracted a crowd of 12,414 at Rogers Arena. Toronto will play its next game in Vancouver on Sunday against the Las Vegas Aces, also at Rogers Arena.
The Fire (15-21) are now 5.5 games behind the Dallas Wings for the last playoff spot. Portland has eight games left in the regular season. They’ll face Dallas on Tuesday, having split their two previous matchups this season, with each road team winning once.
Kiki Rice tied her career high with 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting, while Laura Jukaite contributed another 15 points for Toronto.
For Portland, Bridget Carleton made five three-pointers and scored ten of her total of 18 points in the first quarter. Megan Di Leo had 14 points, Emily Engstler added 13 points and Serah Williams chipped in with ten.
Nyadiew Puoch, Carleton and Engstler all hit three-pointers during a run that gave Portland a brief lead of 76-75 with just over three minutes left to play. Neither team managed to score again until Harrison made a floater about two minutes later, putting Toronto ahead for good.
Carleton missed a contested three-pointer as time ran out.
Portland led by as much as thirteen points early in the first quarter before Rice’s three-point play pushed Toronto ahead to lead by twelve at 75-63 with just over six minutes remaining.
Toronto was missing their top scorer Marina Mabrey (right adductor). Nyara Sabally (calf) and Maria Conde (calf), who have combined for seventy starts this season, were also sidelined. Brittney Sykes exited after about one and half minutes due to foot issues while Aneesah Morrow left early in the second quarter because of knee pain.
Fire: Host Washington on Sunday.
Tempo: Face off against Las Vegas Aces again on Sunday at Rogers Arena in Vancouver.___ See AP’s full WNBA coverage here
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