Sparks star Kelsey Plum’s Phantom BC to face Mist in Unrivaled championship

NEW YORK — Arike Ogunbowale celebrated her 29th birthday Monday night by hitting a game-winning three-pointer at a packed Barclays Center to lift Mist to the Unrivaled championship game.

The former Notre Dame great is no stranger to hitting big threes; she led the Fighting Irish to the national championship in 2018 with game-ending shots from behind the arc in both the Final Four and the title game.

The difference this time, she said, was that money was on the line.

“It may not be the same level, but that’s more money than I made in college, 100K on the line,” Ogunbowale said laughing.

By making the finals, Mist has a chance to take home the $600,000 prize pool that will be split among the players from the winning team Wednesday. Mist will face top-seeded Phantom BC at Unrivaled’s home arena in Miami.

Phantom advanced to the title game behind 31 points from Sparks star Kelsey Plum in a 83-75 win over Vinyl in the first semifinal of the 3-on-3 league.

After the success of taking the league to Philadelphia in late January for a weekend that drew over 21,490 fans, Unrivaled decided to move the semifinals to New York a few weeks ago. Playing at Barclays Center was a homecoming for Stewart, the Unrivaled co-founder who led the New York Liberty to its first WNBA championship in 2024.

The star-studded sellout crowd of 18,261 for the semifinal games included basketball greats Carmelo Anthony and Sue Bird; actors Ashton Kutcher and Jason Sudeikis, and gold medal-winning U.S. hockey player Hilary Knight.

The crowd gave a loud ovation to Liberty guard Natasha Cloud, who walked down to the court through the fans as she was introduced before the first game.

She gave them a lot to cheer about as she rallied Phantom in the third quarter from a 59-50 deficit. Cloud drew an offensive foul on one end and then had a three-point play on the other. Her team was up 71-64 heading into the final quarter, which meant it needed 11 points to win under the league’s format.

Vinyl got within 78-75 before Phantom scored the final five points, including the game-winner by Plum on a fadeaway three-pointer.

Vinyl was looking to get back to the championship game. The team lost to Rose BC for last year’s title. The Sparks’ Dearica Hamby led the Vinyl with 30 points.

Hamby’s Sparks teammate Rickea Jackson got Breeze going early in the second game, scoring 13 points in the opening quarter as the team went up 26-10. Mist rallied to within 44-38 at the half as Stewart hit a floater in the lane just before the halftime buzzer.

Breeze extended its advantage to 62-55 after three quarters before Stewart rallied Mist. Trailing 67-60 in the fourth quarter — with 73 points needed to win — Stewart scored seven straight, including a three-point play to tie the game.

Alanna Smith then hit a three-pointer to give Mist its first lead of the game, 70-67. After a layup by the Sparks’ Cameron Brink brought Breeze within one, Ogunbowale ended the game when she hit a tough three-pointer from the corner.

Paige Bueckers had 17 points and 10 rebounds to lead Breeze.

Gray wins MVP

Chelsea Gray of Rose BC won the league’s MVP award on Monday. The guard, who won Unrivaled’s 1-on-1 tournament last month, averaged 24.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 6.1 assists. Gray broke her own league single-season assists record with 85 in 14 games. She had nine games with 20 or more points and 10 contests with five or more assists. She also tied the league single-game three-pointers record with 10 on Feb. 22.

Gray accepted the trophy before the start of the first game.

“I want to say thank you to everyone who voted. I love this game. Want to be great every night and that’s always my goal,” Gray said. “Women’s basketball is where it’s at, shows by all you guys coming out and watching us compete every single night.”

Feinberg writes for the Associated Press.