TORONTO \u2014 Shakira Austin sank a pair of free throws with 17 seconds left to play as the Washinton Mystics spoiled the Toronto Tempo\u2019s WNBA debut with a 68-65 victory on Friday.<\/p>\n
Austin was then fouled again, making two more free throws with 10 seconds to go to clinch the Mystics win.<\/p>\n
Austin and Kiki Iriafen each had a double-double for Washington (1-0) in the season opener for both teams. Austin had 18 points and 11 rebounds. Iriafen had 12 points and 16 boards.<\/p>\n
Marina Mabrey led all scorers with 27 points and pulled down seven boards for the expansion Tempo (0-1). <\/p>\n
Brittney Sykes sank the first-ever basket in franchise history in front of a sold-out crowd of 8,210 at Coca-Cola Coliseum. She finished with 14 points.<\/p>\n
Hamilton\u2019s Kia Nurse, the only Canadian on Toronto\u2019s roster, came off the bench with two points, a rebound and an assist.<\/p>\n
Takeaways<\/p>\n
Mystics: Washington\u2019s superior shooting carried the day, with the Mystics going 25 for 64 (39.1 per cent) on field-goal attempts, including 5 for 24 (20.8 per cent) on three-pointers. Oddly, they struggled at the free-throw line, going 13 for 22 (59.1 per cent).<\/p>\n
Tempo: Although the expansion team\u2019s roster was just built within the past month, Toronto\u2019s emphasis on acquiring veterans helped with its depth. The Tempo\u2019s bench outscored their opponents 11-4.<\/p>\n
Key moment<\/p>\n
Laura Juskaite\u2019s three-pointer with 1:53 left in the game tied it 63-63 for Toronto. Mabrey grabbed a defensive rebound on the ensuing Washington possession, leading to a Tempo timeout. Iriafen sank a free throw with 1:04 to play for a narrow one-point Mystics lead, but Mabrey answered with a pair of free throws of her own before before Austin clinched it.<\/p>\n
Key stat<\/p>\n
Washington more than doubled Toronto\u2019s points in the paint, 40-16.<\/p>\n
Up next<\/p>\n
Toronto: Hosts the Seattle Storm on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Washington: Hosts the New York Liberty on Sunday.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 8, 2026.<\/p>\n
John Chidley-Hill, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Shakira Austin sank a pair of free throws with 17 seconds left to play as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":657204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,82,3302],"class_list":["post-657287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657287","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=657287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/657204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}