Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball will crown its first-ever 1v1 tournament champion on Friday night, when all four semifinalists take the court with a $200,000 grand prize on the line.
Vinyl guard Arike Ogunbowale will kick off the semis against Mist forward Aaliyah Edwards, before Unrivaled co-founder and Lunar Owls forward Napheesa Collier faces Rose forward Azurá Stevens. The victors will immediately advance to the night's best-of-three final series.
Notably, Friday's set puts alma mater pride on center court. A trio of UConn alums in Collier, Stevens, and Edwards will all clock in, while Ogunbowale reps Notre Dame — one of just three teams to beat the Huskies this NCAA season.
Along with those priceless bragging rights, the semifinalists are battling for a six-figure payday, though none will leave empty-handed. Each are guaranteed at least $25,000, with $50,000 on deck for the tournament's runner-up.
The players' Unrivaled teammates will also be watching with interest, as the winner's entire 3×3 team will snag $10,000 each.
Though 1v1 can feel like a schoolyard version of basketball, with this much money involved, expect the competition to rise miles above playground tussles.
Endurance could decide Unrivaled 1v1 tournament champion
Friday's format is in part a test of stamina, as players stare down a grueling schedule where the eventual winner must play either three or four 1v1 games in a single night.
To that end, Collier's elite conditioning could make her the favorite, if she can outlast Stevens in the pair's semifinal.
"Her motor is unmatched," Stevens said of Collier's endurance, a key factor in her success so far. "I try to conserve some energy in between possessions, especially when the games get really tiring."
Motors aside, Friday's title will boil down to fundamentals — and which athlete best leverages their personal skillset.
"I have to use my size and stick to my strengths," said Edwards. "It’s about imposing my will and getting the job done."
How to watch the Unrivaled 1v1 tournament finals
The inaugural Unrivaled 1v1 tournament concludes on Friday. Live coverage begins at 7:30 PM ET on TNT.
Unrivaled Basketball's 1v1 tournament blew through two rounds of cutthroat action on Tuesday night, setting up fierce competition for Friday's semifinals.
Mist forward Aaliyah Edwards, Rose forward Azurá Stevens, Lunar Owls forward Napheesa Collier, and Vinyl guard Arike Ogunbowale all advanced past their head-to-head opponents.
Each of the four semifinalists will take home at least $25,000, with $50,000 on deck for the tournament's runner-up and $200,000 awaiting the champion.
Additionally, with one player from four of Unrivaled's six teams still standing, two-thirds of the offseason league are still in the running for a piece of the $350,000 purse. The rules dictate that each 3×3 teammate of the champion will receive their own $10,000 check.
Edwards's star 1v1 turn propels her through Unrivaled quarterfinals
In what's shaking out to be the contest's top storyline, No. 8 seed Edwards shut out No. 1 seed Breanna Stewart 12-0 in the first round to earn a second-round bye. She then went on to take down a surging No. 3 seed Allisha Gray to secure a slot in the semis.
"Shouldn't be surprised," the 22-year-old Mystics star said after downing Gray 12-6. "Played my first year in the league, now I'm tapping into myself, and the confidence is showing and the work is showing."
Elsewhere, height and offensive versatility proved a winning formula for both No. 6 seed Stevens and No. 1 seed Collier, while No. 1 seed Ogunbowale is the last guard still standing.
All three ousted WNBA teammates to advance, with Ogunbowale sending her former Dallas Wings compatriot Satou Sabally out 12-8 while Collier handed fellow Lunar Owl and Minnesota Lynx contender Courtney Williams a 12-4 defeat. Stevens dominated her LA Sparks teammate Rae Burrell, sending her packing with a 12-2 victory.
How to watch Friday's Unrivaled 1v1 semifinals
Notably, Friday's semifinals will be heavy on UConn grads, with Notre Dame alum Ogunbowale the lone non-Husky hitting the court.
Ogunbowale will try to halt Edwards's run, while Collier and Stevens — who played together on two of UConn's Final Four rosters — will go head-to-head in the other semifinal.
Unrivaled's 1v1 semifinals and subsequent best-of-three championship series will tip off on Friday at 7:30 PM ET, with live coverage on TNT.
Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball's 1v1 tournament is fast approaching, with the offseason league dropping the competition's official bracket on Wednesday.
The head-to-head showdown tips off on Monday, February 10th, with the semifinals and three-game final series all tipping off on Friday, February 14th.
Fan votes determined the seeding for the debut league's first-ever in-season tournament. Those ballots gave the Mist's Jewell Loyd and Vinyl's Arike Ogunbowale first-round byes, moving them straight into Tuesday's quarterfinal round.
Meanwhile, the other 28 competitors have four rounds to overcome to claim the trophy — not to mention $200,000 in prize money.
Breaking down the Unrivaled 1v1 bracket
Some early battles will be tougher than others, as Unrivaled co-founder and current scoring leader Napheesa Collier takes on fellow UConn alum Katie Lou Samuelson. The winner of that matchup then faces either Jackie Young or Rickea Jackson.
Collier's fellow co-founder Breanna Stewart — also a UConn product — drew 2024 UConn standout Aaliyah Edwards in Monday's first round. The winner subsequently earns a second-round date against either Marina Mabrey or Kate Martin.
Despite her first-round bye, Ogunbowale's bracket quadrant appears to be a gauntlet.
The guard will first battle either fellow Notre Dame alum Skylar Diggins-Smith, who has four game-winners under her belt so far this season, or Vinyl teammate Dearica Hamby.
The Olympic 3×3 bronze medalist trails only Collier and Laces star Kayla McBride on Unrivaled's score sheet, averaging 21.2 points per game. Additionally, Hamby's 10.4 rebounding average has her sitting fourth in the league.
Should they advance, either McBride or Satou Sabally will await Ogunbowale in the quarterfinals.
Ultimately, every matchup is stacked considering the star-studded league's depth.
"I just want the top dawgs to knock each other out," joked Courtney Williams ahead of her own first-round clash with Tiffany Hayes, with the winner set to square off against either Rhyne Howard or Lexie Hull.
"[If] your shot's falling, really anyone can win 1v1," she continued. "It's all about who figured it out in that moment."
How to watch next week's Unrivaled 1v1 tournament
The inaugural contest's first round tips off at 2 PM ET on Monday, with live coverage on truTV. The evening session begins at 7 PM ET on TNT.
Both the second round and quarterfinals will air on truTV starting at 7 PM ET on Tuesday, with the semifinals and finals taking over both truTV and TNT on Friday beginning at 7:30 PM ET.
Team WNBA defeated Team USA 117-109 at the 2024 All-Star Game for the second-straight Olympic cycle on Saturday, fueled by a record-setting 34 points from All-Star MVP Arike Ogunbowale — all scored in the second half.
Ogunbowale has now won All-Star MVP twice in her career, with both instances coming in games against the US Olympic team. The Dallas guard withdrew her name from Olympic consideration earlier this year.
WNBA All-Stars put up historic numbers
The impending Olympic Games added an extra layer of pressure to this year's All-Star Game, with Team USA needing to develop chemistry as quickly as possible while a few WNBA All-Stars left off the Olympic roster seized the opportunity to prove themselves.
Caitlin Clark broke the All-Star Game assist record for a rookie with 10 assists, while Angel Reese became the first rookie in WNBA All-Star Game history to record a double-double with 12 points and 11 rebounds.
Meanwhile, Allisha Gray added 16 points off the bench for Team WNBA, one day after becoming the first player to ever win both the Skills Competition and the 3-Point Contest in the same year. Kelsey Mitchell and Nneka Ogwumike also scored in the double digits for the winning side.
"I think it was the same four years prior," Clark said of the game's final score. "Team WNBA beat Team USA and they were perfectly fine at the Olympics.
"If anything, it shows how good this league is, how much talent there is."
Team USA looks to improve in tight Olympic turnaround
For the US, losing the All-Star Game isn't the end of the world — they won gold in 2021 after the same result — but they definitely have room for improvement before their Olympic group stage tips off on July 29th.
Breanna Stewart led Team USA with 31 points and 10 rebounds, while fellow Olympic veterans A'ja Wilson contributed 22 points and Diana Taurasi notched 14.
The Paris-bound squad also notably worked players recently out with injury back into the fold: Chelsea Gray played only 11 minutes on Saturday, and Napheesa Collier tallied just three minutes on the court.
What's next for Team USA?
The US will play Germany in a final exhibition game in London on Tuesday before traveling to France on a quest to earn their eighth-straight gold medal. The national team's final pre-Olympic matchup will air live on FS1 starting at 3 PM ET.
Arike Ogunbowale powered Dallas to a win on Wednesday, with 14 of her 25 points coming in the fourth quarter.
Despite trailing 75-73 with 3:16 to go, the Wings rattled off the next 14 points to beat the Chicago Sky 87-79. As a whole, the Wings shot 100% on eight shots in the final five minutes of the game.
"I don't know. I mean, I was dead, honestly," Ogunbowale said after Dallas's comeback win. "Maddy [Siegrist] came to me and said, 'The Lord renews your strength.' And the last five minutes, we went crazy."
Postgame, head coach Latricia Trammell applauded her team’s ability to handle the Sky’s pressure.
"We know basketball is a game of surges," Trammell said. "You just gotta weather the storm because we were gonna go on our runs as well."
While Chicago was unable to find an answer for Dallas’ fourth-quarter surge, Sky rookie Angel Reese had a solid professional debut. Her first WNBA bucket came in the third quarter, and she finished with 12 points and eight rebounds, joining the remaining four Sky starters in double-digit scoring.
Of Reese's 12 points, seven came in the fourth quarter.
"She's [Angel Reese] a great player on and off the court," Ogunbowale said of the LSU alum's performance. "This is her first game. Obviously, she has a long career, this is a good start."
While rapper Latto was in the building for the Sky game, Kim Kardashian dropped by the Los Angeles Sparks game with daughter North to see the Sparks took on Atlanta. Rookies Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson both made their WNBA debuts, while Layshia Clarendon had their first career triple-double.
Brink finished with 11 points, four assists, and two blocks, but got into foul trouble with five fouls in 20 minutes.
Atlanta would have the last word, thanks to Rhyne Howard leaving behind some broken ankles in her 25-point performance.
The Caitlin Clark WNBA era has officially begun, with the star-studded rookie making her preseason debut with the Indiana Fever on Friday.
Clark scored a team-leading 21 points — including five threes — and recorded a game-high 16 points at the half. But it was Arike Ogunbowale who got the last word for Dallas, knocking down a splashy buzzer-beating three-pointer in front of the sold-out crowd to deliver the Wings the 79-76 win.
"I think there's gonna be a lot to go back and look at and learn from, because a lot of it is kind of different from college," Clark said shortly after the Fever's loss. "Just from, you know, a technique standpoint or you know, scheme standpoint, and what we do is not always always going to be the same. So I think those are the biggest things, but I think overall, I just played really hard and that's always something to be proud of."
For Clark, the biggest transition challenges lie in WNBA's physicality and talent levels.
"No matter who steps into the game, you can never really relax, because that’s how competitive the league is," she added.
Fever coach Christie Sides also commented on's Clark on-court adjustment in her postgame remarks. Noting that the team will have to take steps to protect their star as she navigates the W's upgraded athleticism, Sides shared that at one point in the game, Clark was "completely gassed" and called for a sub.
"We have to do better, we can't let her get to that point," Sides said. "She just won't be able to last and the way people are guarding her — I mean, she's seeing a double team, she's seeing hard hedges, they're being real physical with her. That's how it's going to be for her. And so we've got to make sure we're doing what we can to protect her so she's able to go into fourth at the same level she is in the first."
Clark wasn't the only rookie making their pro debut in Dallas that night. Ohio State ace Jacy Sheldon racked up six points and one rebound in her 13 minutes on the court (plus an unfortunate viral moment), but the breakout performance of the night went to Jaelyn Brown, a Cal grad who went undrafted in 2020 and spent the last few years playing overseas. On Friday, she carried the Wings to the finish line with 21 points in 29 minutes on 7-of-15 shooting.
After the game, Brown attested that she's "ready to compete" in an atmosphere that she "belongs in."
"I just try and treat it as any other game," she continued. "The crowd was amazing, it’s a little different from overseas, a little bit, but it’s the same game. I just [came] out there with a calm composure and did what I can do."
The Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty have dominated the headlines and conversations since last year’s playoffs. On the court, the Aces and Liberty have had similar success, earning the top two seeds in the 2023 postseason.
Six other squads, though, are ready to challenge the superteams, starting with four intriguing first-round matchups. Just Women’s Sports has insights and predictions for each three-game series.
(1) Las Vegas Aces vs. (8) Chicago Sky
Defending champion Las Vegas set a WNBA regular-season record with 34 wins in 40 games. And after ending the season on a four-game winning streak, the Aces are in prime position to start the playoffs.
Meanwhile, the Sky made the postseason against all odds in a season that saw the departure of their head coach and general manager, James Wade, who left for an assistant coaching position in the NBA. Chicago needed a late-season push to edge out the Los Angeles Sparks for the final playoff spot, and they got it by winning four of their last five contests.
These two teams are in completely different places, and while the Sky should be proud of their resilience in even making the playoffs, this series should be dominated by the Aces.
The teams played three times in the regular season, with the Aces taking all three matchups, 93-80, 107-95 and 94-87. In each matchup, Las Vegas had a different leading scorer, with the team’s four stars – A’ja Wilson, Jackie Young, Chelsea Gray and Kelsey Plum – all hitting double-digits each time. Chicago will have to find a way to limit one or two of those scorers to have a chance against the potent Las Vegas offense.
Prediction: Las Vegas in 2
(2) New York Liberty vs. (7) Washington Mystics
This series shows the importance of the fight for the No. 1 seed. Neither the Aces nor the Liberty wanted to play the Mystics.
Washington may be a No. 7 seed, but the team ranks much higher in terms of talent. Injuries throughout the season prevented the Mystics from ever getting on a roll, but when healthy, they boast Elena Delle Donne, Natasha Cloud, Shakira Austin, Ariel Atkins and Brittney Sykes in the starting lineup.
Washington is certainly feeling good about itself after beating New York, 90-88, in the final game of the regular season. Yet while the Mystics can challenge the Liberty, New York is the better team and should win the series – though it may take three games to do so.
The Liberty also come into the playoffs on a high, despite the loss to Washington. They started the regular season with a ton of talent and ended it as a cohesive team that looks hard to stop in a playoff series.
Sabrina Ionescu has been particularly tough for the Mystics to stop, as she’s been New York’s leading scorer with 20-plus points in three of their four regular-season meetings. Washington needs to lean on a stellar defensive performance across the court, but particularly from Sykes and Cloud to defend New York’s guards. After that, it will be up to Austin and Delle Donne to slow down Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones. So a lot needs to go right for Washington. Ultimately, even healthy, it will be challenging for Washington to contend with New York’s talent across all five positions.
Prediction: New York in 3
Playoff Mode! 🚀🫀#WNBAPlayoffs #MoreThanGame pic.twitter.com/FRVPQFlAHJ
— Breanna Stewart (@breannastewart) September 13, 2023
(3) Connecticut Sun vs. (6) Minnesota Lynx
The Sun and the Lynx played four times this season, with Connecticut holding a 3-1 advantage, but the series featured several close games. Two of the Sun’s wins came by 10 points and 5 points.
Led by MVP candidate Alyssa Thomas and her 15.5 points, 9.9 rebounds and 7.9 assists per contest, Connecticut has been consistent all season. Slowing down Thomas is the first challenge the Lynx will have to tackle. She runs the court for the Sun, and no squad has had an answer for that. Meanwhile, DeWanna Bonner is having the best season of her career, averaging 17.4 points per game. Her length also provides a challenge for Minnesota’s defense.
Meanwhile, the Lynx are peaking at the right time. They started the season 0-6 but have turned their season around. Napheesa Collier has been a huge part of that success, averaging 21.5 points, 8.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. She was huge in the most recent matchup, finishing with 30 points.
The Lynx have come a long way, particularly with the development of rookies Diamond Miller and Dorka Juhász, and they have the ability to make this series interesting. But ultimately, the one-two punch of Thomas and Bonner is too big of a challenge to overcome, and the Sun should take this series.
Prediction: Sun in 3
(4) Dallas Wings vs. (5) Atlanta Dream
Dallas and Atlanta come into the playoffs as two similar squads — not in the way they play, but in their ability to beat anyone on a given night. Both these teams are bursting with talent, and when things go right, they go really, really right.
Yet while the Wings continue to mesh, the Dream struggled down the stretch. Still, if Atlanta puts everything together, it can compete with Dallas, though the Dream are 0-3 in the regular-season series.
To have a chance against the Wings in the playoffs, Rhyne Howard, Cheyenne Parker and Allisha Gray will all need to have big games, and Atlanta will likely need a lift from someone unexpected as well.
Dallas will lean on its big three – Satou Sabally, Arike Ogunbowale and Natasha Howard – to do most of the scoring. But the team’s inside presence is where the Wings can separate themselves. Both Teaira McCowan (6-7) and Kalani Brown (6-7) can do damage on both ends, and alongside the length of Awak Kuier (6-6), they make it difficult for opponents to attack the rim.
Prediction: Dallas in 2
The magical season continues for our unicorn 🦄
— Dallas Wings (@DallasWings) September 12, 2023
Satou Sabally has been named the @AP Most Improved Player of the Year. pic.twitter.com/BMNKQt9mKk
The Dallas Wings’ loss Sunday to the Chicago Sky featured two ejections and a fight during a chippy WNBA weekend, one which has resulted in one suspension and seven fines for players.
Wings star Arike Ogunbowale, one of the players ejected Sunday, gave voice afterward to a question that has echoed across the league this season: What is going on with the referees?
Ogunbowale received her second ejection of the season for making unnecessary contact with an official with 52 seconds left in the game. The 26-year-old guard’s shoulder knocked against the referee’s shoulder, which led to the technical foul and ejection.
“[The referee] was looking for something. I just watched it back a million times,” Ogunbowale said after the game. “I don’t know what’s going on this year with the refs but that was the worst call I’ve ever seen in my life.”
While Ogunbowale avoided a suspension, she did receive a fine for her contact with the official and for her postgame comments. Sky forward Ruthy Hebard received a one-game suspension and a fine for leaving the bench area during an on-court altercation earlier in the game, and her teammate Courtney Williams received a fine for doing the same.
The WNBA also handed out punishments for an altercation during Sunday’s game between the Los Angeles Sparks and Washington Mystics. Los Angeles’ Layshia Clarendon and Washington’s Ariel Atkins, Brittney Sykes and Shakira Austin all received fines.
Mystics players Elena Delle Donne and Natasha Cloud both have expressed frustration with WNBA officiating this season. In May, Delle Donne criticized the referees for treating her “like a rookie with calls.” In July, Cloud had even harsher words for the referees.
“I don’t care what pipeline refs we have coming through. I don’t care,” she said. “We have to do our job every single night. You need to do yours. This is bull—t. This is f–king bull–t.”
In June, Atlanta Dream coach Tanisha Wright questioned the officiating in one of her team’s games, particularly a flagrant-one call on New York Liberty guard Stefanie Dolson that Wright believes warranted a flagrant-two and an ejection.
“We’re expected to play at a high level every single night… The officials need to be able to rise to that same occasion. They should be held to that same standard,” Wright said. “They’re going to fine me for this, but I’m challenging them to raise their standards… Officiating needs to get better, period.”
Also in June, Seattle Storm guard Jewell Loyd — after scoring a career-high 41 points — took time to call out officiating issues.
“Protect the players,” Loyd said. “It’s not just us. Every single team has said something about the refs. That tells you that something is going wrong in that department. You expect high-level players, we expect high-level refs. We’re not getting that every single night.”
The WNBA on Sunday announced the 10 players — four guards and six frontcourt players — who will start the 2023 All-Star Game.
For a second straight year, the Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson and the New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart will serve as team captains after receiving the most fan votes of any All-Star starter. Wilson received a grand total of 95,860 fan votes, while Stewart clocked in at 87,586.
In addition to Wilson and Stewart, the other frontcourt starters include Brittney Griner (Phoenix Mercury), Satou Sabally (Dallas Wings), Aliyah Boston (Indiana Fever) and Nneka Ogwumike (Los Angeles Sparks).
The four starting guards are Jackie Young (Las Vegas Aces), Jewell Loyd (Seattle Storm), Arike Ogunbowale (Dallas Wings) and Chelsea Gray (Las Vegas Aces).
Boston, the No. 1 overall pick of the 2023 WNBA Draft, is the eighth rookie selected to start an All-Star Game but first since 2014. She is also the only first-time All-Star of the group, while Griner is the starter with the most All-Star appearances (9).
Wilson and Stewart will draft their teams during a special WNBA All-Star selection show on Saturday, July 8 (1 p.m. ET, ESPN). The WNBA All-Star Game will be played at Michelob Ultra Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, July 15, with the game airing on ABC (5:30 p.m. PT/8:30 p.m. ET).
How does WNBA All-Star voting work?
WNBA All-Star starters were determined by a combination of fan voting (50%), media voting (25%) and current player voting (25%).
Twelve reserves will be selected by the league’s head coaches, who each vote for three guards, five frontcourt players and four players at either position — though they are restricted from voting for their own players.
2023 WNBA All-Star Starters
See below for two tables that show the breakdown of All-Star voting by fans, media members, and current players for the top-10 athletes at each position. Starters are indicated with an asterisk (*).
Arike Ogunbowale did not let an ejection get her down in the Dallas Wings’ 85-73 win over the Atlanta Dream.
The game featured 10 technical fouls, including two on Ogunbowale. But as she exited the game with less than two minutes remaining and 21 points to her name, she took time to hype up the crowd. The 26-year-old guard raised her arms to elicit cheers before signing a fan’s autograph as she entered the tunnel.
Arike hyped up the crowd and signed an autograph after getting ejected 😅 pic.twitter.com/YRJnzMvX2w
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) June 21, 2023
“I definitely have never seen anything like it,” Dallas coach Latricia Trammell said of the 10 technical fouls, which was the most ever in a WNBA regular-season game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Five of the technicals were defensive 3-second calls, four of which were called against the Dream. One was a delay of game on Dallas, and the other four were all individual calls against the Wings. Trammell herself even picked up a technical.
“I’ve heard about 10 different things, but I’m not exactly sure,” Trammell said about her technical. “We’ll turn some clips in (to the league); that’s usually how we do it. (Wings president and CEO) Greg (Bibb) will get some clarity on certain parts of the game. We’ve just got to continue to keep our composure no matter what call is made and just continue to move forward.”
Despite her cheerful exit from the victory, Ogunbowale also commented on the deluge of technical calls.
“I don’t know how much I can even say,” she said. “I just feel like all around, from top to bottom, coaches, refs, I don’t know, everybody just needs to be able to control their emotions. Everybody’s going to be emotional in the game and I just feel like everybody needs to learn how to control their emotions.”
I wish I could say more but I ain’t tryna lose no mo money 🤭😂 great win tho‼️ https://t.co/iYY4hPQHPb
— Arike Ogunbowale (@Arike_O) June 21, 2023