The Indiana Fever will face the Toronto Tempo on Friday, September 18, at Coca-Cola Coliseum, with tipoff scheduled for 7:30 p.m. EDT. The matchup is Indiana’s 41st regular-season game and its 21st road game of the season. The game will be televised nationally on ION.
Indiana enters the matchup with a 26-14 record, while Toronto is 11-29. The Fever are coming off a 111-91 victory over the Connecticut Sun on August 28 and have won two straight games. Toronto enters Friday’s contest having lost four consecutive games, including a 101-69 loss to the Phoenix Mercury on August 29.
The Fever have already defeated the Tempo twice this season. Indiana won 113-91 in Indianapolis on June 16 before returning to Toronto on August 18 and earning a 101-95 victory. The two teams meet for the third and final time during the regular season Friday night.
Indiana’s probable starting lineup features Caitlin Clark, Kelsey Mitchell, Lexie Hull, Makayla Timpson and Aliyah Boston. Clark is averaging 22.5 points and 8.4 assists per game, while Mitchell leads the Fever in scoring at 25.0 points per game. Boston is averaging 16.9 points and 8.3 rebounds per game.
Clark has also produced against Toronto, averaging 22.5 points and 10.5 assists in two career games against the Tempo. Mitchell is averaging 28.0 points against Toronto in two career meetings.
The Fever are averaging 97.0 points per game this season while shooting 49.2% from the field and 39.5% from three-point range. Toronto is averaging 86.2 points per game, shooting 44.0% from the field and 34.6% from three.
Toronto will enter the game without several key players. According to the Tempo’s personnel report from September 17, Brittney Sykes is out with a left foot injury, Marina Mabrey is out with a right adductor injury, and Aneesah Morrow is out with a left knee injury. María Conde is listed as questionable with an illness.
Mabrey has been one of Toronto’s top offensive performers this season, averaging 20.8 points, 3.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists while shooting 38.5% from three-point range. Her 53-point performance against the Los Angeles Sparks was a WNBA record-tying performance.
With Mabrey unavailable, rookie Kiki Rice is among the players Toronto will look to. Rice is averaging 12.5 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. She scored a season-high 24 points against Seattle on August 26 and is being considered for the All-Rookie Team.
Rice is also coming off a strong stretch before the FIBA break. In Toronto’s August 26 loss to Seattle, she scored 24 points, while Isabelle Harrison recorded 17 points and 14 rebounds.
The Tempo will also look to Harrison, who is averaging 12.4 points and 6.5 rebounds per game. Toronto’s last listed starters include Rice, Kia Nurse, Temi Fágbénlé, Laura Juskaite and Harrison.
Friday’s matchup comes as Toronto begins the final four games of its regular season. Following the game against Indiana, the Tempo will host the New York Liberty on September 20 before finishing the season on the road against Chicago and Connecticut.
For Indiana, the Fever will continue their final stretch of the regular season with a road matchup against Toronto before returning home to face Washington on September 20.
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