The Toronto Tempo welcomed back one key player from injury in their win against the Chicago Sky, as power forward Isabelle Harrison made her season debut.
Harrison, who suffered a thumb dislocation during training camp in April, had yet to be active for a game. She was a key part of the Tempo’s 85-68 victory over the Sky.
“The crowd is lit,” Harrison said about the crowd’s reaction when she checked into the game. “I’ve been seeing the fans talk to me on social media, and just the energy I’ve been feeling here since day one has been amazing.”
Harrison got the satisfaction of seeing her first shot of the season, a three-point shot, go in. From there, she was rolling, shooting a perfect 2-for-2 from distance.
“I think that really definitely got my momentum going,” Harrison said of her first shot. “I really love our offence, because we have the spacing, so anyone is just capable of just being able to shoot that shot.”
“It felt really good, and it felt good to have the crowd behind me and cheering me on, like I’ve been wanting from day one.”
In her ninth WNBA season, Harrison was vocal in training camp that she was excited to come to Toronto and be a part of “building something special” with a new team.
In her absence from the court, Harrison has been a vocal bench presence for the Tempo, joking that she took on a coaching role. Her long-term injury also meant the Tempo were down a key frontcourt player, as Harrison’s size at 6-foot-5 is crucial to their interior presence on both ends of the floor.
“I felt like I was a coach for a little too long, I was getting a little ‘FOMO,’ Harrison said. “[I wanted] to just be out here with the girls, and just be a part of the process of building.”
“[There are] definitely growing points I can work on, it’s just my first game back,” she continued. “I’m just so excited to be with the girls and see the crowd; I was really happy.”
Harrison’s presence and size in the lineup immediately shifted the team’s dynamic, as she scored 14 points in the game, shooting 6-for-9 from the field and 2-for-2 from three-point range. She added six rebounds, two assists and one steal to her stat line.
“She’s just an experienced player, just sees the game in the right way,” head coach Sandy Brondello said after the game of Harrison’s impact. “She knows what she’s capable of doing, and it was fun, it was great for her to come back and have success so quickly and be impactful in our overall win.”
“It’s a testament to her as a human being,” guard Brittney Sykes said of Harrison’s return. “She was out really early in the season, and was never apart from us.”
“Just having another rebounder, another bumper, another person who could shoot the three and space out the defence,” Sykes said of what Harrison brings to the lineup. “[She’s] also somebody with the IQ that can read the defence and make plays for us on and off the ball.”
“You just see where there were a few holes, and that was just something I tried to keep in my mind,” Harrison said of watching her team from the sideline. “I just wanted to get defensive rebounds; that was my biggest thing today, and anything else was a plus.”
Sykes had a good showing herself, leading Toronto with 25 points, seven rebounds, three assists, and one steal. In 11 games this season, Sykes is averaging a career-high 20.1 points per game – her total of 221 points on the season is the most ever by a WNBA expansion franchise player through 11 games as well.
One thing the Tempo struggled with in this game was the three-point shot, only shooting 18.2% from three as a team. While it didn’t end up causing them to drop the game, it will be something Brondello works with the team on during this week’s practice.
“I suppose we were moving it to get high-quality shots at the rim, and that takes away from the three-point shooting,” Brondello said. “We get to practice on Tuesday before our next game, so I think we might be doing some contested threes and getting to the spots.”
“Today, in the end, it’s about winning. I mean, those shots will come. We just got to stay confident in how we play,” Brondello said.
With this win, the Tempo are now 1-1 in the Commissioner’s Cup in-season tournament, and 6-5 on the season as a whole. They play the Connecticut Sun at home on Wednesday in another tournament game.
