Portland Fire coach gives ‘elite’ admission after first road win vs. Toronto

The Portland Fire earned the first road win in franchise history Saturday night, and coach Alex Sarama praised the team’s offensive execution after a 99-80 win over the Toronto Tempo, also setting a franchise record for points scored in a game.

Portland outscored Toronto 55-36 after halftime and putting together a 11-0 fourth-quarter run to improve to 3-3 on the season.

“Just great team basketball tonight,” Sarama said after the win, as reported by Nik Streng of The Oregonian/OregonLive. “… That’s really what we set to go out to achieve with the offense in terms of how can we not play just through one or two players but have multiple options out there with all the principles of play and getting these high-quality shots. And I felt the shot quality was elite tonight.”

Emily Engstler led Portland with 16 points and seven rebounds while also recording four blocks. Carla Leite added 15 points and nine assists, Bridget Carleton scored 15 points, Megan Gustafson finished with 14, and Sarah Ashlee Barker added 12 as the Fire nearly recorded the first 100-point performance in franchise history.

Marina Mabrey finished with 19 points and eight assists for Toronto, while rookie Kiki Rice matched her season high with 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting. Brittney Sykes added 10 points for the Tempo, who dropped to 3-4.

Nyara Sabally returned for Toronto after missing two games with a neck injury and scored nine points in 23 minutes. Portland’s Karlie Samuelson, who has been sidelined with a left foot injury, was available but did not make her season debut.

The Fire will continue their road trip Monday against New York, while Toronto hosts Chicago on Wednesday.

Information from The Associated Press contributed to this article. 

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