<\/p>\n
Toronto Tempo guard Kiki Rice defends against Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas in the first half at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix on Aug. 29, 2026.<\/p>\n
Mark J. Rebilas, IMAGN IMAGES via<\/p>\n
But the younger players provided some energy against an injury-depleted Toronto team. Forward Maddy Westbeld showed more awareness in her third game with the Mercury, drawing contact when she\u00a0couldn’t\u00a0find any open passes and getting to the free-throw line.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Guard\u00a0Kara Dunn found confidence from the perimeter\u00a0in her WNBA debut,\u00a0draining\u00a0three 3-pointers on three looks in her first seven minutes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Dunn\u00a0participated\u00a0in training camp with the\u00a0Mercury, but\u00a0dealt with a lingering knee issue and\u00a0didn’t\u00a0make the opening-night roster. She returned on a developmental contract on July 26.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“For me, it means a lot because me and Sami share similar journeys this year,” Dunn said. “Getting\u00a0comfortable\u00a0is important to me and showcasing everything that I can do\u00a0is just one step, but I was really happy with what I’ve seen so far.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
Guard Shay\u00a0Ciezki\u00a0had a better feel for her\u00a0two-way\u00a0playmaking\u00a0in her fourth game, matching\u00a0Brochant\u00a0for the team\u00a0lead in\u00a0scoring with\u00a015 points, along with\u00a0five assists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tibbetts and his coaching staff have seen the younger players stay in the gym the longest during practice and play for limited minutes.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It’s hard when you’re not playing,” Tibbetts said. “You got to love it to continue to want to get better.\u00a0We’ve\u00a0got some young players that are doing\u00a0that,\u00a0and\u00a0that’s\u00a0the reason our staff is pouring into them for opportunities like this. It’s good to get reps and feel on film instead of in practice.”\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Mercury’s\u00a0youth movement resulted in the team\u00a0hitting a season high of\u00a015 3-pointers.\u00a0The Mercury also scored 49 bench points and 28 fast-break points.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Phoenix played only the reserves in the fourth quarter and went scoreless for\u00a0nearly five\u00a0minutes,\u00a0but\u00a0eventually reached the 100-point mark for the fifth time this season.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Toronto Tempo guard Kiki Rice defends against Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas in the first half at Mortgage…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1035628,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[49],"tags":[35694,1502,62,67,132,68,232,16966],"class_list":["post-1035627","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-nate-tibbetts","tag-phoenix-mercury","tag-sports","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-wnba","tag-women"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117192170357838646","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035627","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035627"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035627\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1035628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035627"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035627"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035627"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}