Key Points
- Toronto's Marina Mabrey scored 53 points Thursday, tying the WNBA single-game record.
- She matched marks set by Liz Cambage (2018) and A'ja Wilson (2023).
- Mabrey shot 17-of-28, including a record-tying nine 3-pointers.
- The Tempo routed the Los Angeles Sparks 125-97, the most points in franchise history.
Marina Mabrey put up a number only two players in WNBA history had ever reached. The Toronto Tempo guard scored 53 points on Thursday night, tying the WNBA single-game scoring record, as Toronto routed the Los Angeles Sparks 125-97.
Mabrey, 29, matched the mark Liz Cambage set for Dallas against New York on July 17, 2018, and A'ja Wilson equaled for Las Vegas at Atlanta on August 22, 2023 — the only other 53-point games the league has seen. She got there on 17-of-28 shooting, including nine 3-pointers on 18 attempts, which also tied the WNBA single-game record, plus 10-of-12 at the free-throw line. She had 27 points at halftime and 39 through three quarters before closing it out.
The read is what it says about where the league's scoring ceiling sits. A 53-point game had happened only twice in WNBA history; now a third player has matched it — and this one landed on an expansion team in its first season. Mabrey, a former Notre Dame guard and a core piece of Toronto's inaugural roster, dropped it in a 125-point team night, the most in Tempo history — the kind of result that makes a 2026 expansion club look like a plan rather than a placeholder.
It also fits the season the WNBA is having. The same new CBA that raised the salary cap to $7 million arrived alongside a wave of scoring the league had rarely produced — from Caitlin Clark's 30-point, 10-assist nights to Mabrey matching a record that had stood largely untouched for years. "None of this happens without my teammates," Mabrey said. "They really found me."
Source: NBA.com and Al Jazeera.
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