{"id":204906,"date":"2026-07-12T14:58:54","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T18:58:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=204906&#038;preview=true&#038;preview_id=204906"},"modified":"2026-07-12T15:00:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T19:00:03","slug":"tempo-wings-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/07\/12\/tempo-wings-break\/","title":{"rendered":"Tempo, Wings Break Regular Season Attendance Record in Intense Matchup"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n<p>The Toronto Tempo and the Dallas Wings played at Bell Center in Montreal on Friday night. In the latest milestone for the WNBA&#8217;s first international team, the home crowd did not disappoint. There were 20,996 fans in the arena, marking the <a href=\"https:\/\/tempo.wnba.com\/news\/historic-crowd-at-montreals-bell-centre-becomes-largest-regular-season-audience-in-wnba-history\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">highest-attended WNBA regular-season game<\/a> in history. An exciting back-and-forth matchup made this game one of the best the league has seen all season. Let\u2019s dive into some key takeaways from this record-breaking night.<\/p>\r\n<h2>Tempo, Wings Break Regular Season Attendance Record in Intense Matchup<\/h2>\r\n<h3>A Showdown Between Paige Bueckers and Marina Mabrey<\/h3>\r\n<p>Throughout this electrifying game, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/b\/bueckpa01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paige Bueckers<\/a> and <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/m\/mabrema01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Marina Mabrey<\/a> kept trading buckets. Mabrey started strong with 17 points in the first quarter, including 14 straight. As the game progressed, she and Bueckers were shooting the lights out. Bueckers ended the game with a season-high 34 points, along with six rebounds and six assists. On the other side, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/06\/29\/marina-mabrey-shines\/\" target=\"_self\">Mabrey<\/a> recorded her tenth 20+ point performance of the season. She also tallied 34 points and drilled six 3-pointers in the process. Mabrey is still the league leader in threes made with 73. Both Mabrey and Bueckers rank among the top five in scoring average this season.<\/p>\r\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Paige Bueckers and Marina Mabrey drop 34 PTS each in back and forth duel \ud83d\udd25 | WNBA on ESPN\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Obu7_Y9Ddd8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\r\n<h3>Strong Shooting from Both Teams<\/h3>\r\n<p>As a team, the Wings shot 52.7 percent from the floor and 44 percent from three. The Tempo shot just over the Wings&#8217; percentage at 54.7 percent from the floor and 46.7 percent from three. The offense was strong for both teams, putting on a show for this Montreal crowd. The back-and-forth scoring barrages from both teams were electrifying. There were a combined 203 points scored. The lack of defense made this matchup a joy to watch. The entire game was wide open for either team to win.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n<h3>Momentum Shifts<\/h3>\r\n<p>Early on, the Toronto Tempo seemed in control of the game. With Mabrey&#8217;s strong outing, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/05\/26\/tempo-fire-wnba-season\/\" target=\"_self\">Tempo<\/a> had a ton of energy and momentum. In the second quarter, their team went on a 14-4 scoring run. The Tempo were up by as many as 14 points in the game. The Wings, however, rose to the occasion and went on a 12-3 scoring run in the second quarter and an 18-4 scoring run later in the game. The Wings\u2019 lead was up to 13 by this point, ultimately sealing the win for them.<\/p>\r\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOByX8X7pHj\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3873px; aspect-ratio: 3873\/2582;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\r\n<h3>Strong Performances from Teammates<\/h3>\r\n<p>This season, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/s\/shepaje01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jessica Shepard<\/a> has been playing at a career-high level. The forward has started every game this year for the Wings and is putting up career-high numbers for herself. In this matchup, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2026\/06\/26\/dallas-wings-success\/\" target=\"_self\">Shepard<\/a> recorded her 14th double-double of the season. The forward had 20 points and 17 rebounds. She shot an efficient 77.8 percent from the floor.<\/p>\r\n<p>The Wings\u2019 other starting forward, <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/o\/ogunbar01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Arike Ogunbowale<\/a>, recorded 20 points, three rebounds, and seven assists. These point contributions from each player were key for the Wings.<\/p>\r\n<p><a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/j\/juskala01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Laura Ju\u0161kait\u0117<\/a> of the Toronto Tempo scored a career-high 25 points during the game. Ju\u0161kait\u0117 was very impressive throughout the game, knocking down three three-pointers at a 50% shooting rate. Tempo forward <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/h\/harriis01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Isabelle Harrison<\/a> also had a strong outing with 18 points and eight rebounds. Harrison has dealt with injuries this season, so it was nice for the Tempo to have her available in this game.<\/p>\r\n<h3>Energy From the Crowd<\/h3>\r\n<p>Having 20,996 fans in the arena was perfect for a game like this. When big shots were made, the crowd would erupt. There were quite a few deep three-pointers made from players on each side. Having two superstars go head-to-head in Bueckers and Mabrey was stellar. After a night like this, the WNBA will highly consider expanding to Montreal.<\/p>\r\n<h3>What This Means Moving Forward<\/h3>\r\n<p>The Toronto Tempo have already grown their fan base in their inaugural WNBA season. With star power from Mabrey and the injured <a  href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/s\/sykesbr01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brittney Sykes<\/a>, the team has a lot to offer. Having a big turnout in Montreal means the league is continuing to grow in the right direction. The WNBA may benefit from more pop-up games in new locations. Locations with larger crowds indicate where expansion teams could be located. It is also great exposure for the league to schedule games outside of the 15 arenas.<\/p>\r\n<p><span>Photo Credit: Eric Bolte, Imagn Images via Reuters Connect<\/span><\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Toronto Tempo and the Dallas Wings played at Bell Center in Montreal on Friday night. In the latest milestone for the WNBA&#8217;s first international team, the home crowd did not disappoint. There were 20,996 fans in the arena, marking the highest-attended WNBA regular-season game in history. An exciting back-and-forth matchup made this game one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5846,"featured_media":204922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,3,49709],"tags":[49232,49679,4153,50499],"class_list":["post-204906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-news","category-wnba","tag-dallas-wings","tag-marina-mabrey","tag-paige-bueckers","tag-toronto-tempo"],"modified_by":"Daniel Benjamin, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5846"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204906"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":204923,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204906\/revisions\/204923"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204922"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}