Who is Marina Mabrey? The feisty Tempo guard who tied the WNBA scoring record with 53 points

Casual sports fans may not know much about Marina Mabrey. She doesn’t garner the national attention of other more well-known WNBA players.

But the feisty and competitive Mabrey created a buzz with one of the best shooting perfomances in WNBA history, matching the league scoring record of 53 points in a win over Los Angeles on Thursday night.

The total points probably raised a few eyebrows, but her 3-point barrage didn’t — the 6-foot-1 guard has been called “Money Mabrey” because of her shooting ability from beyond the arc.

She was 17 of 28 from the field, including matching her own WNBA record of nine 3-pointers. She’s just outside the top 20 all-time in league history as she’s hit 500 3-pointers in her career.

“I think tonight was just my night from the three-point line, and from honestly everywhere,” Mabrey said while laughing. “And then the fans, to end up chanting MVP, I don’t know that I ever imagined that. But it was really a good feeling.”

Mabrey matched A’ja Wilson and Liz Cambage as the only players to score 53 points in a game.

“I’ve been doing this for quite some time,” Toronto coach Sandy Brondello said. “I’ve never seen that. (Not even from WNBA icon) Diana Taurasi, and she could shoot it really well. I mean, to witness that was amazing.”

The 29-year-old Mabrey is journeywoman playing on her fifth WNBA team since she was drafted in the second round in 2019 by the Los Angeles Sparks, who she scored the 53 points against. Mabrey been on a scoring binge lately. She has scored 113 points in her last three games while hitting 21 3-pointers.

Some things to know about Mabrey:

Mabrey has not been a first choice

Mabrey wasn’t a first-round draft pack coming out of Notre Dame and was taken sixth by the Tempo in the expansion draft during the offseason. But she has continued to grind and currently is tied for fourth in the league in scoring, averaging 21.2 points a game. Coming into this season her career average was 12.5 points a contest. She has set her career high in points twice in the past week. Before Thursday night’s outburst, she had a career-best 37 against the Sun on June 19. She played in Connecticut the previous two seasons after getting traded to the Sun in July 2024. Before Connecticut, Mabrey also played in Dallas and Chicago.

Tempo guard’s All-Star case

Mabrey has never made a WNBA All-Star team in her career, although she is making a strong case this season — even before her historic 53-point effort. Mabrey competed in both the 3-point shootout and skills competition at the 2024 All-Star weekend. She was traded to Connecticut from Chicago that weekend and donned Sun jersey during those contests.

Mabrey’s competitive nature, self accountability

Mabrey, who is known for her competitive and fiery play, came up with the idea of a “crash out jar” while playing for Unrivaled this past year. Each outburst she had would cost her money as she would fine herself. Curse words were a dollar each, a scuffle could be as much as $40 and something like an insult to someone else would cost her $5.

It is unknown how much money ended up in the “crash out jar.”

The jar debuted right before Mabrey scored an Unrivaled record 47 points in the league’s stop in Philadelphia on Jan. 30. that was a special night for Mabrey, who is from Belmar, New Jersey, and was able to play close to home in that game.

Mabrey said before the season started that the jar would come with her to Toronto.

Notre Dame record holder

Mabrey helped Notre Dame win a national championship and graduated as the school’s all-time leader in 3-pointers made (274). She scored 1,896 points during her career at Notre Dame, which is ninth all-time in the Irish record books.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball