WNBA to Punish Liberty Star After Marina Mabrey Incident
Marina Mabrey of the Toronto Tempo is having the best professional basketball season of her career. After being selected No. 6 overall by the Tempo in the 2026 WNBA Expansion Draft, Mabrey has responded by averaging a team-high 21.6 points per game to go along with 3.6 assists and 3.5 rebounds.
The former Notre Dame Fighting Irish star has shown a tremendous shooting stroke, making 3.5 3-pointers per game while shooting 40.4% from behind the arc and 86.9% from the free-throw line. On Sunday, in the Tempo's 93-91 win over the New York Liberty, Mabrey finished with a game-high 30 points. During the fourth quarter, an incident involving Mabrey caught the attention of the league.
With 1:48 remaining in the game, Liberty center Jonquel Jones had lost her shoe. New York's Betnijah Laney-Hamilton grabbed the shoe and tossed it, hitting Mabrey in the back. Laney-Hamilton received a technical foul for the incident, her second technical of the game, resulting in her ejection. Liberty head coach Chris DeMarco spoke after the game, saying Laney-Hamilton was trying to throw the shoe back to Jones and did not mean to hit Mabrey.
The WNBA is expected to punish Laney-Hamilton further. A Flagrant 2 foul or a second technical foul results in an automatic $1,000 fine. The WNBA enforces technical foul punishment on a progressive scale. The first three technical fouls result in a $500 fine each. Technical fouls four through seven result in $1,000 fines each. Every technical foul after the eighth results in a $1,500 fine and a mandatory one-game suspension.
"Betnijah Laney-Hamilton was ejected after throwing Jonquel Jones' shoe," Yahoo Sports wrote on X. "At Marina Mabrey during the Liberty-Tempo game."
Betnijah Laney-Hamilton was ejected after throwing Jonquel Jones' shoe at Marina Mabrey during the Liberty-Tempo game. pic.twitter.com/4oLLg21bhh
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) July 12, 2026
New York will head to College Park Center to face the Dallas Wings on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET.
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This story was originally published July 13, 2026 at 12:10 PM.