Sandy Brondello has spent nearly three decades around women’s basketball — WNBA and the Australian National team included. She has coached arguably the best players in New York, like Breanna Stewart, and watched legends play like Diana Taurasi. Yet, Marina Mabrey needed just 32 minutes to leave the veteran coach in absolute awe.
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“What Marina did was something special,” the coach said in the post-game interview after Toronto Tempo defeated the Los Angeles Sparks 125-97. “I’ve been doing this for quite some time. I’ve never seen that, even with Diana Taurasi, and she could shoot it really well. So, it was special to be a part of it. I mean, to witness that, that was amazing.”
Brondello wasn’t exaggerating…
In a game that ESPN gave the Sparks a 55.1 percent chance of winning, Marina Mabrey completely flipped the script and erupted for 53 points. By going 17-28 from the field, 9-18 from beyond the arc, and 10-12 from the free throw line, she tied for the most points in a single WNBA game with Las Vegas Aces superstar A’ja Wilson.
Her nine three-pointers also tied the WNBA record for the most made threes in a single game, as the Tempo also set a new league record for the most points scored in a regulation game. Interestingly, she tied her own record from earlier this season when the Tempo visited the Connecticut Sun. In the 101-97 win, Mabrey dropped 37 points, going 14 of 24 from the field, including 9 of 12 from beyond the arc.
The scary part was that she still had time to make history all by herself.
Marina Mabrey tied Wilson’s mark with three straight triples in the fourth quarter before getting two more chances to break the record outright. But sadly, neither of those shots dropped, and she checked herself out with 1:04 remaining in the game. Still, by then, nobody inside the arena really cared. The fans of the expansion team were already on their feet, chanting “MVP” as the 29-year-old walked back to the bench with a standing ovation.
“The fans, to have them chanting MVP. I don’t know that I ever imagined that,” Mabrey said. “It was really a good feeling.”
But she also made sure everyone knew that none of it would have been possible without the players around her.
“When you have teammates that have your back and are literally passing up open layups to pass to you at the three-point line, that’s an elite level of trust that I couldn’t be more grateful for,” she added.
However, this performance is even more impressive when you look at where Marina Mabrey was just a year ago.
“Going back to last season, I think I had one of my worst seasons,” she admitted. “I just went back to the drawing board and went back to working really hard at Unrivaled, being a lot more intentional about what I was doing.”
Safe to say that work has paid off.
In a season where her team is standing at 9-9, all Mabrey has to prove now is that this wasn’t a one-night explosion. Next up, Marina Mabrey and the Tempo will lock horns with the Phoenix Mercury.
