Sunday afternoon's 93-91 loss for the New York Liberty to the Toronto Tempo was already a gut punch, but it blew up into absolute chaos when Betnijah Laney-Hamilton got ejected for hitting Marina Mabrey with Jonquel Jones' shoe. Seriously, you read that right. Liberty coach Chris DeMarco didn't hold back after the defeat, letting loose on the officials for an "atrocious" and "pathetic" performance down the stretch. You know things are wild when a shoe is flying around the court.
The Wildest Ejection You'll See All Season
So, here's how this went down. The Liberty, already on the second day of a back-to-back and struggling with six losses in their last eight games, clawed their way back from a 20-point deficit in the third quarter. They cut it to one point with less than two minutes left and were about to get the ball back after Laura Juskaite was called for a charge. But before play could restart, a shoe came flying across the court and smacked Marina Mabrey in the back! Mabrey was absolutely incensed, ready to raise hell before Liberty players and officials stepped in. The officials went to the monitor for a review, and what came out was even crazier. No camera caught the whole thing, but Laney-Hamilton, who was on the bench, had gone onto the court to grab Jones' shoe, which had come off on the prior possession. She tossed it back toward her teammate, but instead, it found Mabrey. The officials slapped Laney-Hamilton with a technical for "throwing a projectile onto the floor." That was her second tech of the game, sending her packing. And get this: she'd already gotten a Flagrant 1 earlier in the game for hitting Mabrey in the face, with her first technical coming from another dust-up with Mabrey. Talk about a rivalry heating up!Coach DeMarco Blasts Officials as Liberty Collapse
Laney-Hamilton tried to explain it all after the game, saying, "I would never intentionally try to hit someone with a shoe, especially while they're not looking. Teammate was without a shoe, so I did my best to try and get it to her. Unfortunately, it did hit someone." She added, "I know just by the way that things were going throughout the game that it can look a certain way but that's just not something that I would personally do... especially in a moment like that where game is on the line." But regardless of intent, the consequence was immediate. Mabrey stepped to the line and nailed the technical free throw, putting the Tempo up by two. The Liberty did manage to tie the game briefly with 1:30 to play, but then went completely scoreless for the rest of the game. Breanna Stewart even missed a driving runner with less than 10 seconds left that could've forced overtime. This was a brutal way to lose, especially with the coach ripping into the officiating like that. The Liberty are clearly frustrated, and this bizarre loss is only going to add fuel to that fire.This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.