Toronto Tempo Lose Rookie Kiki Rice to Brutal Injury

Basketball has of late been overly kind to Kiki Rice.

Rice and the UCLA Bruins boat-raced the rest of NCAA Division I women’s basketball en route to a 37-1 record. Their final win of the season was a 79-51 drubbing of South Carolina to win UCLA’s first NCAA women’s basketball championship in program history.

The following week, Rice became the Toronto Tempo’s first-ever draft pick as the sixth overall selection in the 2026 WNBA Draft on April 13.

Rice said on draft night that she’d never been to Toronto before, but it didn’t take long for her to make herself comfortable. But the basketball gods giveth and taketh away.

The Tempo announced Thursday that Rice suffered a grade 2 ankle sprain late in the team’s 97-82 loss against the New York Liberty on Wednesday.

“She will be re-evaluated in the coming days and a timeline on her return to play is to be shared at a later date,” the Tempo said in a press release about Rice’s injury.

Rice has averaged 12.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.6 assists, and 1.0 steals in 26.7 minutes across the Tempo’s first 10 games, including six starts. Toronto is 5-5 so far in its inaugural WNBA season.

Losing to the Liberty marked the Tempo’s first-ever WNBA Commissioner’s Cup action. Every game in the league from June 1 to June 17 will be part of the Commissioner’s Cup. The Tempo will next host the Chicago Sky (3-6) on Sunday, June 7, and the Connecticut Sun (2-9) next Wednesday, June 10.

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This story was originally published June 5, 2026 at 12:34 AM.