Marina Mabrey’s first All-Star selection lasted about a day before Golden State reminded her what the Valkyries do to leading scorers. In an 83-75 loss at the Coca-Cola Coliseum, the Toronto guard went scoreless from the field for the first 37 minutes. When it was over, she wasn’t interested in dwelling on the whistle.

“I feel like there’s probably a difference between physicality and just absolutely fouling, you know?” Mabrey said, according to beat reporter Zulfi Sheikh. “I’ll keep my money, so I’ll leave it that.”

That kind of restraint says a lot, given what she had just been through. Golden State face-guarded her most of the night, often with Gabby Williams, the team’s own leading scorer, doing the chasing. Mabrey didn’t get her first made field goal until a cutting layup with 2:59 left in the fourth quarter. Everything before that had come from the free-throw line.

This wasn’t an isolated shutdown either. Golden State has now held an opponent’s leading scorer below their season average for 12 straight games, and Mabrey became the latest name on that list. She finished with 11 points on 2-of-9 shooting, missed all three of her three-point attempts, and added 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 5 turnovers, well off the pace that made her an All-Star in the first place.

Toronto still found ways to compete without her scoring. Isabelle Harrison had a career night, going for 24 points and 8 rebounds, and Kia Nurse chipped in from beyond the arc. But with the Valkyries shooting 45% from the field and 37% from three as a team, and Golden State’s defense making sure Mabrey never got comfortable, that offense wasn’t enough to close the gap.

Head coach Sandy Brondello addressed the defensive attention on Mabrey directly after the game, and she didn’t pretend it was a small thing.

Sandy Brondello addresses the physicality around Marina Mabrey in the Valkyries loss

Speaking at the post-game presser, head coach Sandy Brondello clearly highlighted the aggressive defensive schemes the Golden State Valkyries employed against Marina Mabrey, remarking that the team should have helped her find more space.

“They were really aggressive on Marina all night, so it was hard to get her open,” Brondello said. “She’s tough. Unfortunately, she’s getting a lot of trapping. We’re trying to put her off the ball, out of the action. On the ball, she passes really well; she’s probably not going to get an open shot. We’ve probably just got to find more solutions to get her into a little bit of pinch action, where she can create something (through) isolations.”

“But overall I thought she did a really good job of handling the physicality as well as we would’ve hoped. She’s tough, she’ll be okay.”

That mix of concern and confidence from Brondello captures where Toronto stands right now. The loss dropped them to 9-12 and extended their skid to three straight games, and the larger issue isn’t really about one rough shooting night. It’s that Golden State’s defense has made life miserable for opposing stars all season, and Toronto now knows firsthand what it takes to solve it.

They’ll get a quick chance to regroup. The Tempo host both the Dallas Wings and the New York Liberty at the Bell Centre in Montreal this weekend, part of the franchise’s Cross-Canada Series, with Dallas up first on July 10.