The undrafted French rookie who just quadrupled her scoring average
Aug 11, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Phoenix Mercury guard Sami Whitcomb (33) and forward Noemie Brochant (1) celebrate as LA Sparks guard Rae Burrell (12) reacts in the first half at the Galen Center.
Noémie Brochant entered Phoenix’s August 11 game at the Galen Center as a 5.4-point-per-game scorer across 34 games this season. She left with 24 points and 5 steals in 30.1 minutes, helping the Mercury beat the Sparks 94-87 and snap a three-game losing streak, according to a wire report carried by the Washington Post. The same story credited Alyssa Thomas with nine of her 16 points in the fourth quarter as Phoenix closed the game on a 16-6 run after trailing 81-78 with under five minutes left.
Los Angeles Sparks 87 - 94 Phoenix Mercury · WNBA · 12/08/2026
| Game | PTS | REB | AST | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles Sparks | Kiana Williams | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Jihyun Park | 5 | 1 | 0 | |
| Rae Burrell | 19 | 3 | 6 | |
| Dearica Hamby | 19 | 4 | 2 | |
| Cameron Brink | 7 | 5 | 1 | |
| Chance Gray | 4 | 2 | 0 | |
| Tonie Morgan | 3 | 1 | 1 | |
| Kate Martin | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Emma Cannon | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Ariel Atkins | 5 | 4 | 2 | |
| Erica Wheeler | 7 | 3 | 5 | |
| Nneka Ogwumike | 18 | 9 | 8 | |
| Phoenix Mercury | Valériane Ayayi | 7 | 4 | 1 |
| Marta Suarez | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Shay Ciezki | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Kyara Linskens | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Kelsey Plum | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Noémie Brochant | 24 | 3 | 3 | |
| Kahleah Copper | 18 | 4 | 1 | |
| Sami Whitcomb | 7 | 4 | 3 | |
| Dewanna Bonner | 11 | 7 | 2 | |
| Alyssa Thomas | 16 | 7 | 9 | |
| Natasha Mack | 9 | 4 | 1 | |
| Lexi Held | 2 | 3 | 1 |
The Mercury’s own channels framed the night in historical terms: Brochant became the first rookie in franchise history to record 20-plus points and 5-plus steals in a single game, per the team’s official social accounts.
A number that stopped looking like an outlier
A 24-point night from a 5.4-point scorer would normally read as a one-off. The context here suggests otherwise. Two nights earlier, on August 9, Brochant scored 13 points, coming off the bench in 20.9 minutes — though not a season high. Earlier in the season she had already reached similar or higher scoring totals: 16 points on June 20, a game that also included 10 assists, and 12 points on June 24. On August 7 she played 22.1 minutes, a reminder that her production still swings game to game. Set against a season that had already produced a 16-point, 10-assist night, the 24-point performance on August 11 reads less like an accident and more like confirmation of a ceiling she had already flashed. Her season average through 35 games now stands at 5.9 points, 2.0 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 1.0 steal per game.
- Position : Small Forward
- Height : 180 cm
- Age : 26 y/o
- Nationality : France
- Club : Phoenix Mercury
Stats 2026-2027 / WNBA
| PTS | 6.1 | #107 |
|---|---|---|
| REB | 2.1 | #126 |
| AST | 1.8 | #86 |
The steals total is its own marker. Her single-game high of 3 steals had been set on June 24, then matched on June 27 and again on July 19. Jumping to 5 steals in the same game she posted a season-high in scoring signals a level she had touched only in pieces before.
The path from Charleville-Mézières to the Mercury rotation
Brochant went undrafted and signed a training camp contract with Phoenix on April 13, 2026, alongside fellow French forward Valériane Ayayi, according to the Phoenix Mercury’s announcement. At the time, she was coming off a run with Charleville-Mézières in the LBWL, where she had averaged 11.3 points, 4.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.0 steals across 23 games and helped the club win the 2025 French Cup and SuperCup. She moved into Phoenix’s starting lineup for the team’s seventh game of the season, per the Ix Basketball.
Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts had already flagged her defensive tools before this breakout, saying, “I’m really excited about her defensive potential, to be quite honest, in just a short amount of time,” per the same outlet. Teammate Kahleah Copper spoke about her defensive presence and what Phoenix has been able to do with her on the floor: “I just think her presence defensively has been really good. We’ve been able to switch, we’ve been able to do a lot of different things with her on the floor.” Brochant has described the mentality behind it: “When you arrive here, you are nobody, you have to prove something … so I think that’s why I defend.”
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