MARINA MABREY TIES THE SINGLE GAME WNBA SCORING RECORD

Marina Mabrey dropped 53 points on Thursday night in Toronto, tying A’ja Wilson and Liz Cambage for the single-game WNBA scoring record.

On June 25, the Toronto Tempo hosted the Los Angeles Sparks. The Tempo have been one of the surprises of the WNBA season thus far and have exceeded all of their expectations. Marina Mabrey has been a big part of that as she joined the team via the expansion draft this Spring.

As a member of the Tempo, Mabrey has been empowered by Sandy Brondello to take on a bigger role in the offense, especially with Brittney Sykes out due to a plantar fascia injury. Mabrey is at career highs in usage rate, points per game, and field goal percentage as she has kept the Tempo competitive.

And as we’ve seen in the past, Mabrey tends to put on a show when the lights are bright, and she saved her best show for the Prime audience watching around the world.

Mabrey tied the WNBA single game scoring record with 53 points, joining A’ja Wilson and Liz Cambage. Marina also tied the single game three pointers made mark with nine, joining Chelsea Gray, Rhyne Howard, Arike Ogunbowale, Jewell Loyd, and Kelsey Mitchell in that category.

Marina scored from everywhere on the court and had the sold out Toronto crowd on its feet.

After the game, she reflected on the night and the support she’s received in her new home.

“I think tonight was just my night from the three point line, and from, honestly, everywhere! It was all going in.

“And then the fans. To have them chanting MVP, I don’t know that I ever imagined that, but it was really a good feeling. And then, especially just watching them celebrating me every quarter, every play, those are the moments that I’m going to remember about this game more than anything.”

Marina Mabrey has been a joy to watch in Toronto. She’s as confident as ever and is playing the best ball of her career.

It’s fun watching a player reach a new level this deep into their career, and we can’t wait to see what she has coming next.

Here’s what you need to know today:

⛈️ Across the BRM Network
The Seattle Storm are finally back in the win column.

🎧The Extra Possession:
Get to know Team Nigeria & Hive BC head coach Rena Wakama.

🏀 Game of the weekend
The Golden State Valkyries look for a San Francisco two step vs. the Atlanta Dream.

A national controversy in Indiana
Caitlin Clark and Alyssa Thomas went for a loose ball. And then all hell broke loose

🗓 Upcoming games
What’s on deck to begin the week.

📰 What we’re reading
Some great writing that’s come across our desks.

BACK ON THE GOOD FOOT

The Seattle Storm ended the longest losing streak in franchise history Thursday night, beating a short-handed Liberty team 99-88 to finally exhale.

On June 22, the Storm hosted the new and improved Dallas Wings. The Storm were able to force the game into overtime, but fell two points short as Paige Bueckers took over down the stretch.

Even with the loss, you started to see the Storm’s vision coming into fruition. And on Thursday night, we saw it in full.

They took on a New York Liberty team that was missing Breanna Stewart and Satou Sabally. However, when you’ve lost a team record 11 games in a row, you take what’s in front of you. Seattle started off strong and never let up on the way to a 99-88 victory.

Prior to the game, the Storm played a welcome back video for franchise icon Breanna Stewart.

Three years is a mighty long time…

On the latest edition of Tempestade Talk, Erica L. Ayala and Roberta F. Rodrigues dove into the latest surrounding the Storm.

With Dominique Malonga getting better by the day, the future is incredibly bright for the Storm. They’ve got their franchise player and now the job is to find suitable talent to pair alongside her.

A win like this one — against a Liberty team missing two starters — won’t silence the doubters, but it’s the first step toward a much-needed reset.

GABBY WILLIAMS AND THE VALKYRIES ARE FOR REAL

The Valkyries don’t pick favorites.

“Everyone’s a rival in my eyes… We want all 14 rivals.”

In their two years in the WNBA, the Golden State Valkyries have built one of the best, most intimidating homecourt atmospheres in professional basketball. Balhalla has been sold out for each game of the Valkyries’ existence thus far and Valkyries fans make life tough on opposing stars that enter their house.

What’s also been evident for the Valkyries is the way in which coach Natalie Nakase gets the most out of her roster. Players such as Veronica Burton, Kaitlyn Chen, and Kayla Thornton have been empowered playing under her and have had terrific seasons in Golden State. Their big off-season pickup is following in that tradition.

Gabby Williams is having the best season of her WNBA career. She’s at career highs in usage rate, points per game, and three point percentage this season and has a good chance to make her second consecutive All Star game.

Williams is one of the game’s most versatile players and often fans want “International Gabby” to appear in the W. However, her play in the United States context was what brought Williams and the Valkyries together.

“You know it’s actually nice,” Williams told Black Rosie Media, “because I think most people saw my potential overseas, and brought me. Nat saw my potential from watching me in the W. She never really talked about what I did overseas. She’s like, ‘This is how you can be great in the W,’ and coaching me that way.

“I think my struggle was always, ‘Oh, well, you can do this, but here you do this.’ She’s like, ‘No, I’ve seen you do this here, so you’re going to do it again here, and we’re just going to emphasize on it,’ and that’s been huge for me.”

With Williams playing tremendous ball on both sides of the ball, they’ll look to capture the season series against an Atlanta team that might be jockeying with them for postseason positioning towards the end of the year.

Golden State won the first meeting on Wednesday as they held the Dream to a season low 66 points and limited the effectiveness of Angel Reese, Allisha Gray, and Rhyne Howard. If they can do it again, it’ll give this group even more confidence heading into a Sunday night showdown with the New York Liberty.

The Valkyries have done a lot of things right on the court. Led by Gabby Williams, they’re competitive every night and are ferocious on defense.

As they continue to grow, Balhalla will help them stay one step ahead of their peers and create an intimidating postseason setting.

A FOUL THAT WASN’T, AND ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE AFTER

Alyssa Thomas put her fist to Caitlin Clark’s throat going for a loose ball Wednesday night. The WNBA suspended her one game. And the discourse hasn’t stopped since.

This week, the Fever hosted the Phoenix Mercury for a two game mini-series. In the first meeting on June 22, the game was filled with antics of various sorts as there were ejections, technical fouls, finger pointing, curse words, and everything in between.

The Fever won that matchup, but tensions were high heading into the rematch on Wednesday.

In the second quarter, there was a scrum for a loose ball involving Caitlin Clark and Alyssa Thomas.

On first appearance, it didn’t appear to be anything outside of the norm when it comes to a loose ball on the basketball court. It also happened in front of the Fever bench and there weren’t any immediate reactions to what happened in front of them nor from the referees.

The announcers didn’t make mention of it and the game proceeded as normal. All good, right

In postgame, Fever head coach Stephanie White said she saw the play and it was, “absolutely unacceptable!”

“When you have these things continue to happen time and time and time and time and time again, eventually it gets frustrating,” she added.

As it usually happens whenever there’s a situation with the Fever and Clark, it spread like wildfire and made headlines all across the country. The incident dominated discussions and it felt like the bad old days of 2024 when it comes to the discourse.

Black Rosie Media founder Erica L. Ayala joined CBS Sports HQ to discuss the news and the circumstances surrounding it.

Responding to the outrage bubbling up, the league office intervened later in the day and deemed that play a flagrant foul, penalty 2 and suspended Thomas one game for her actions in that moment. Thomas will miss the Mercury’s next game on June 27 in Toronto against the Tempo.

After the suspension was announced, Fever team president Kelly Krauskopf released the following statement:

“Player safety should be paramount in our league. We appreciate the WNBA review of last night’s incident and the action taken. Right now our focus is on Caitlin and our entire team as we prepare for Saturday.”

Clark has been dealing with a back injury all season long and has been ruled out of Saturday night’s matchup against the Los Angeles Sparks.

On the Thomas front, the visual of putting a fist to the neck of a player (no matter who it is) and a past history of questionable fouls was too much to overcome and a one game suspension seems appropriate.

It’s a play that fits the definition of unnecessary and excessive contact and something that could and should have been avoided.

All of the invective and hurtful comments Thomas has received afterwards are unacceptable and should be denounced by all parties.

There’s a lot happening here, so let’s try to tackle as much of it as we can.

This story is far from over, and we’ll do our best to keep up with all of the latest developments.

Here’s the schedule for the next few days

At Black Rosie Media, we love to give flowers to other writers and creators in the women’s basketball community.

Here’s what we’re reading:

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