Portland Fire at Toronto Tempo

Tempo snap 12-game skid with an 82-79 win over the Fire at Rogers Arena in Vancouver

The Tempo (11-25) won for the first time since a 93-91 victory against New York at the Bell Centre in Montreal on July 12.

The game drew a crowd of 12,414 at Rogers Arena. Toronto plays its second game in Vancouver on Sunday against the Las Vegas Aces, also at Rogers Arena.

The Fire (15-21) are 5 1/2 games behind the Dallas Wings for the eighth and final playoff spot. Portland has eight games remaining in the regular season. The Fire, who are at Dallas on Tuesday, split their two other games against the Wings this season, with the road team winning each game.

Kiki Rice scored a career high-tying 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting, and Laura Jukaite added 15 points for Toronto.

Bridget Carleton made five 3-pointers and scored 10 of her 18 points in the first quarter for Portland. Megan DiLeo had 14 points, Emily Engstler scored 13 and Serah Williams 10.

Nyadiew Puoch, Carleton and Engstler each hit a 3-pointer in a 13-0 run that gave Portland a 76-75 lead with 3:28 to play. Neither team scored again until Harrison made a floater about two minutes later and Toronto led the rest of the way.

Carleton air-balled a contested 3-point shot just before the buzzer.

The Fire led by as many as 13 points in the first quarter, and Rice converted a three-point play that gave Toronto a 75-63 lead with 6:26 remaining.

Toronto was without leading scorer Marina Mabrey (right adductor). Nyara Sabally (calf) and Maria Conde (calf) — who have 70 combined starts for the Tempo this season — did not play. Brittney Sykes left the game about 1 1/2 minutes in due to a foot injury and Aneesah Morrow (knee) left early in the second quarter.

Up next Fire: Host Washington on Sunday.

Tempo: Face the Las Vegas Aces on Sunday again at Vancouver's Rogers Arena.

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Regular Season Series

POR wins series 2-1