Unrivaled held their first full four-day schedule of games filled with record breaking stats.
The slate of four days of games – instead of the three days from the previous season – has created more action for fans to be a part of. This past weekend and Monday featured eight different matchups.
Let’s dive into those games:
Friday games, Jan. 9
Friday Jan. 9 featured two games, one between the Vinyl BC and Rose BC and the other between Breeze BC and Hive BC
In the first matchup Rose defeated the Vinyl, 69-67 in a thrilling ending. Chelsea Gray hit the game-winner for the Rose, who were down by 10 points heading into half time but managed to pull off the win. The reigning champs a 3-0 start to the season.
“I think that’s just a part of our identity. You have a locker room full of people who are never going to quit, no matter what the circumstances are,” Rose head coach Nola Henry told reporters postgame. “So I think that that’s just what you saw tonight. We will never count ourselves out, always feel like we have a opportunity to win as long as we control what we can control. And sometimes you just got to gut it out.”
In the second matchup, Breeze BC took down Hive BC, 73-62. All five Breeze players that entered the game scored in double-digits, including Paige Bueckers, who shot the game winner for the team.
With no returning players from Unrivaled’s first season, Hive BC are still trying to find their identity and build team chemistry. Still, five out of six players scored in double-figures with guard Sonia Citron leading the way with 16 points and three steals.
Saturday games, Jan. 10
Saturday featured two more matchups including the Lunar Owls BC vs Phantom BC and Mist BC vs Laces BC.
In the first game, Phantom pulled in a 94-60 dominating win against the Lunar Owls. Forward Kiki Iriafen shot the game winner for Phantom.
Phantom guard Kelsey Plum went off for 38 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds.
The Lunar Owls have only five players after losing Napheesa Collier (replaced by Temi Fagbenle) to injury prior to the start of the season and guard Skylar Diggins is out with a lower body injury. In the previous game forward Aaliyah Edwards took a huge fall and is still recovering from that as well.
“I’m getting there, I’m getting there, but I was hoping to get up to the free throw line a little bit tonight. But you know what, it is, what it is, it is what it is. But no, I’m good. Everyone here is helping me. We got good doctors, good medical staff and everything. So [I’m] feeling good,” Edwards told reporters.
The second game featured the Mist BC and the Laces BC. The Mist defeated the Laces 83-81 in a tight game. Forward Breanna Stewart shot the game-winner for the Mist.
Sunday games, Jan. 11
On Sunday the Rose BC faced the Breeze BC and the Hive BC faced the Vinyl BC.
The Rose defeated the Breeze, 73-69, in a mostly back and forth game. Rose forward Shakira Austin shot the game-winner.
Chelsea Gray went off again for 37 points to help lead her team to victory. Breeze guard Paige Bueckers had a near triple-double with 15 points, nine rebounds and nine assists. If Bueckers pulled off the triple-double, it would have been the first ever in Unrivaled history.
In the second game Vinyl BC defeated the Hive BC 89-66. Vinyl forward Dearica Hamby shot the game-winner and had a dominant double-double of 40 points and 10 rebounds, setting a new single-game Unrivaled scoring record.
Hive BC is still searching for their first win of the season.
Monday games, Jan. 12
To close out the four-day slate of games, the Mist BC faced off against the Phantom BC while the Laces BC played the Lunar Owls BC.
The Phantom BC defeated the Mist 64-61 with a game-winning shot by Plum.
Both of these teams are hungry to win after finishing at the bottom of the leaderboard last season and falling out of playoff contention. Mist guards Allisha Gray and Arike Ogunbowale both had 16 points while Stewart led with 17 points and eight rebounds.
“She’s been playing amazing. I mean, since the W season, she had a career year. And she’s a great player, great person, a competitor. I was able to play with her for some years in Dallas, so it’s fun being able to play with her again,” Ogunbowale told reporters regarding her teammate Gray.
The Laces BC then defeated the Lunar Owls BC, 84-72 with a game winner from guard Brittney Sykes. The Lunar Owls are yet to win their first games but have made strides of improvement.
“Right now, we are finding our rhythm. We haven’t been able to practice in a normal flow, like most ofof the teams here. So when we have a lineup out there that’s working essentially right now, we’rekeeping them in because of the rhythm aspect of it. Now, as we get into it a little bit more and we really get some more practice time together as a unit, we’ll be able to make more adjustments. Temi [Fagbenle] got here a week ago, so we’re just working through it right now,” DJ Sackmann told reporters postgame.
Despite her recent injury scare, Edwards is averaging a double-double through her first three games with the Lunar Owls.
CBA negotiations still looming
As for the WNBA, CBA negotiations are still looming, as the Jan. 9 deadline has been reached. The WNBPA was waiting for a response from the WNBA on their latest proposal but time ticked away and they never received one.
The league and its players entered a “Status Quo” period followed by an agreement on moratorium where all initial stages of free agency will be halted.
Multiple players were asked how they are balancing everything going on with CBA negotations while playing in Unrivaled.
“Honestly, it’s hard, especially these past few weeks, I feel like when I’m here, I’m locked in, I’m practicing with my team. But when I go home…we have EC [executive committee] calls, we have all these things that you have to be a part of, because you want to make sure that everything is going exactly in according to plan. So I told Marta [Xargay] today, I said, ‘You know my brain is hurting a little bit like having to think about all these things’, but it’s the position I want to be in,” Stewart told reporters. “I wanted to obviously be here at Unrivaled and help bring this to fruition, as a co-founder, but also I want to make sure that the league, the W, when it comes time to get back to that, it’s going to be something that’s going to be a generational shift in the CBA,” Stewart told reporters.
Plum also weighed in on the situation as the Vice President of the WNBPA executive committee.
“…To be completely transparent, I was on some calls today…being part of the EC[executive committee], being VP like, you have to inform players, ask their opinions, try to get the best pulse on how we’re feeling and how we want to move forward. Obviously, too talking to the media, you have to be on your Ps and Qs, you know, if you slip, that’s going to be a national media headline, to be honest, in terms of figuring out how to be respectful in this process, and continue to go about in good faith negotiations. And what we’re in now, which is status quo…To be honest, it is difficult, and we’re all just trying to do the best we can and navigate and at the end of the day, we all want to play basketball, so hopefully we can get this done sooner than later.”
Free-throw challenge update
Unrivaled launched a unique, new free-throw challenge for their sophomore season. The player who has the highest free-throw percentage through their clubs first five games will win a $50,000 prize.
Fans also had the opportunity to vote on who they thought would win the challenge in exchange for courtside seats and travel funds for ‘Philly is Unrivaled’.
The current standings are led by Paige Bueckers who has shot a perfect 100% from the free-throw line making all eight attempted free throws so far. Azurá Stevens, Dominique Malonga and Veronica Burton follow and are all tied for second place making all five of their free throws each.
New Unrivaled records
This week was full of multiple record breaking games for Unrivaled players including but not limited to Hive BC guard Saniya Rivers and Hamby.
Rivers set a new single-game block record with six blocks against the Breeze on Jan. 9. She has always had pride in her defense always emphasizing that it is the one thing you can control if your shots aren’t falling on offense.
“This isn’t new. I don’t know why coaches be telling them to go post me up because I’m a fight. I’m a fighter on both ends of the floor. So I mean, they’re gonna keep doing it and I’m gonna keep doing what I do,” Rivers rold reporters. “…All of my blocks feel really good. I feel feel like it gets the momentum going, gets the crowd into it.”
Hive head coach Rena Wakama was asked who shed compare Rivers to.
“Saniya reminds me of Saniya. I can’t compare her to anybody else but herself. She’s talented, she affects the game, she can guard anybody. So I don’t think of anybody, but I only think of Saniya,” (Jan 9 Rena Wakama)
On Saturday Jan. 10, Plum tied Colliers single-game scoring record with 38 points accompanied by 11 assists and eight rebounds.
“I think learning from last game. Even though I’ve played basketball for a while, this style is new, and it’s nothing like 3×3 with the Olympics, right? So just trying to figure out a rhythm and a flow. In the first game, I think I wasn’t patient enough. So [I’m] just trying to be super intentional about being patient and allowing the game to come and the reeds are going to open up for themselves,” Plum said.
Hamby then broke Collier’s record setting the new single-game scoring record at 40 points.
“Just our movement. We always talk about how we have a really special group where everybody can score the ball at a high level. So tonight, the pick and roll was just there… I was setting screens and getting out easy, and I finished well at the basket. So just opportunities, 23 shots, I think that would give somebody 40 points,” Hamby told reporters on what allowed her to have a dominate performance.
Unrivaled will be back for its second full slate of games this weekend into Monday.
Here is this weekend’s schedule (all times in ET). All games will be streaming on truTV and HBO Max. Friday’s games will also show on TNT.
Friday January 16
Laces BC vs Phantom BC (7:30 p.m.)
Rose BC vs Hive BC (8:45 p.m.)
Saturday January 17
Mist BC vs Lunar Owls BC (7:30 p.m.)
Breeze BC vs Vinyl BC (8:45 p.m.)
Sunday January 18
Rose BC vs Laces BC (7:30 p.m.)
Hive BC vs Phantom BC (8:45 p.m.)
Monday January 19
Breeze BC vs Mist BC (8:00 p.m.)
Vinyl BC vs Lunar Owls BC (9:15 p.m.)