{"id":637926,"date":"2026-04-30T05:32:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T05:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/637926\/"},"modified":"2026-04-30T05:32:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T05:32:11","slug":"toronto-tempo-fall-to-sun-in-first-pre-season-game-in-franchise-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/637926\/","title":{"rendered":"Toronto Tempo fall to Sun in first pre-season game in franchise history"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WNBA has officially arrived in Toronto.<\/p>\n

In their first game in franchise history, the Toronto Tempo lost 83-78 to the Connecticut Sun in pre-season action on Wednesday at Coca-Cola Coliseum.<\/p>\n

Fittingly, it was Hamilton\u2019s Kia Nurse who landed the first basket in Tempo history, swishing a three-pointer and sending the crowd into a frenzy at the 7:59 mark of the first quarter.<\/p>\n

Sun veteran Brittney Griner scored the first field goal in the building, a layup at the 9:13 mark of the first quarter.<\/p>\n

Connecticut opened up an early lead, but a late first-quarter run keyed by Tempo guard Lexi Held brought things level at 20 each. By early in the third quarter, Toronto opened up a 10-point lead and seemed to be in control.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Morrow also had a key steal and layup with 48.4 seconds remaining to put the Sun up six.<\/p>\n

A rambunctious crowd made a late impact as Connecticut\u2019s Gianna Kneepkens missed a pair of clutch free throws, 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.<\/p>\n

Held, the 26-year-old who spent last season with the Phoenix Mercury before joining the Tempo via the expansion draft, led Toronto with 18 points.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tToronto Tempo Kia Nurse (11) drives past Connecticut Sun Rayah Marshall (25) and Olivia Nelson-Ododa (10) during second half pre-season WNBA basketball action in Toronto on Wednesday, April 29, 2026. (Nathan Denette\/CP) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA has officially arrived in Toronto. In their first game in franchise history, the Toronto Tempo lost…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637927,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-637926","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637926","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637926"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637926\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637926"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637926"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637926"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}