Unrivaled’s top two teams will play for the 3-on-3 women’s basketball league’s 2026 championship on Wednesday.
Arike Ogunbowale hit a 3-pointer to give Mist BC a 73-69 win over Breeze BC in their semifinal matchup. Mist trailed 67-57 with 1:08 played in the fourth quarter after Paige Bueckers hit a 3 for Breeze. But powered by seven points from Breanna Stewart, Mist went on a 10-0 run to tie the score at 67 with 72 the target score after Breeze finished the third quarter with a 62-55 lead.
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Stewart finished with 23 points to lead all scorers, adding 8 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 4 blocks. Ogunbowale followed with 21 points, shooting 5 of 9 from 3-point range. And Allisha Gray tallied 12 points, though she shot 4 of 12 from the floor.
Rickea Jackson scored nine points in Breeze’s 13-0 run to open the game, putting Mist back on its heels from the opening tip. Even after Breanna Stewart scored Mist’s first basket, Cameron Brink immediately answered with a 3-pointer for Breeze.
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Mist was down 26-10 after the opening quarter with Ogunbowale scoring four of those points. But they cut the deficit to six by halftime, trailing 44-38.
Ogunbowale hit a 3 with 45 seconds left in the third quarter to trim Breeze’s lead to 60-55. But that was the closest they could get as Breeze pushed Mist back every time they posed a threat. Only when Breeze was five points away from the win did Mist finally put together the long scoring run that eluded them throughout the entire game to that point.
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Dominique Malonga led Breeze with 18 points and 14 rebounds. Jackson and Bueckers each finished with 17 points, with the former UConn star and WNBA No. 1 overall pick also getting 10 rebounds and 5 assists.
Playing its first season in Unrivaled, Breeze was the fifth-best team during the regular season with a 6-8 record. They upset No. 4 seed Rose BC, 69-50, in Saturday’s first-round playoff game to advance.
Mist went 10-4 leading up to the postseason, placing them just one game behind No. 1 seed Phantom. But as a top-2 seed, they earned a bye into the semifinals. Neither Mist nor Phantom made the Unrivaled playoffs last season.
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Mist and Phantom will play for the 2026 Unrivaled championship and a $600,000 prize pool on Wednesday at Sephora Arena in Miami. Tip-off is scheduled for 9 p.m. ET.
Kelsey Plum is playing her first season in Unrivaled and has hit six game-ending shots for Phantom, leading them to the league’s best record. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Phantom BC finished as Unrivaled’s top team during the 3-on-3 women’s basketball league’s regular season. Yet despite finishing with an 11-3 record, they were challenged by No. 6 seed Vinyl BC and had to rally for an 83-75 win in their playoff semifinal matchup.
Kelsey Plum hit the game-winner for Phantom, knocking down a step-back 3-pointer to surpass the target score of 82 and lift Phantom to Wednesday’s championship final in Miami. It was the second consecutive game she won after ending Friday night’s regular-season finale with a short jumper and the sixth game-ending shot she has hit this season.
Plum finished with a game-high 31 points, in addition to 6 rebounds and 5 assists. Tiffany Hayes followed with 19 points, while Kiki Iriafen scored 17 points and grabbed 11 boards. Phantom played without second-leading scorer Aliyah Boston, who suffered an injury in Friday’s matchup with Rose. She will be unavailable for Wednesday’s final as well.
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Vinyl was aiming to upset a higher seed for the second time in the Unrivaled playoffs. The club coached by Teresa Weatherspoon defeated No. 3 Laces 82-69 in Saturday’s first-round matchup in Miami. Midway through the third quarter on Monday, Vinyl took a 56-48 lead on a 3-pointer by Rae Burrell and technical foul free throw by Rhyne Howard.
Dearica Hamby led Vinyl with 30 points (shooting 11 of 14 from the floor) and eight rebounds. However, she took a hard elbow to the face on a foul by Iriafen, which may have affected her in the closing minutes. Howard added 16 points, while Erica Wheeler scored 13. Burrell had 10 rebounds to go with her 12 points.
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As one of Unrivaled’s top two seeds, Phantom earned a bye to Monday’s semifinals. Vinyl finished the regular season as the sixth-best team with a 5-9 record — just one game better than the 4-10 Lunar Owls and Hive — and was the last seed in the playoffs as a result.
Monday’s semifinal games were played before a crowd of 18,261 at Brooklyn’s Barclays Center. Home to the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets and WNBA’s New York Liberty, the venue’s website lists capacity at 17,553 for basketball games. Before Phantom and Vinyl tipped off, Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell said the two semifinal games drew $1 million in revenue, according to Front Office Sports’ Annie Costabile.
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On Jan. 30, two Unrivaled games — Breeze playing Phantom and Rose matched up versus Lunar Owls — at Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia drew a record crowd of 21.490 for a professional women’s basketball regular-season game.
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