For four quarters Wednesday, Kelsey Plum and Breanna Stewart went toe-to-toe in the championship game of the Unrivaled playoffs.
Plum produced a title-game record 40 points for the top-seeded Phantom. Stewart finished with 32 — including the winning free throw — to lead the second-seeded Mist to an 80-74 victory and the 2026 title at Sephora Arena in Medley, Florida.
Stewart and Mist teammates Veronica Burton, Allisha Gray, Arike Ogunbowale, Alanna Smith and Li Yueru will split Unrivaled’s $600,000 prize pool.
How did Stewart, who was named MVP, and the Mist win Wednesday? We break down the Unrivaled finale as the 3-on-3 league wrapped up its second season.
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Semifinal results | First-round recap
How the Mist won the championship
The winning play didn’t come without controversy. With the Mist one point shy of the winning score, Stewart drove inside and was initially called for an offensive charge on Tiffany Hayes. Mist coach Zach O’Brien challenged the play, the officials overturned the call and put Stewart at the free throw line with the chance to win the title. For the second straight year, a free throw clinched the Unrivaled championship.
Stewart finished with 32 points on 11-of-15 shooting, including 3-for-4 on 3-pointers.
Plum did everything she could to carry the Phantom past the finish line, scoring 40 points on 14-of-21 shooting from the field and 6-of-7 from 3. She scored 18 points in the first quarter, hitting four 3-pointers.
But it wasn’t enough to overcome Stewart and the Mist, especially after the Phantom lost Aliyah Boston to injury for the playoffs. Kiki Iriafen, who stepped into the starting lineup, did her best to fill the void of Boston, the Unrivaled Defensive Player of the Year, and finished with a 13-point, 11-rebound effort. But it’s tough to replicate what Boston contributes.
The Mist had one of the highest-powered offenses, leading the league in scoring in the regular season, and got an incredibly even scoring night from every player who was on the court. Stewart was one of four Mist players to score in double figures. Ogunbowale had 19 points, and Gray and Smith combined for 23.
Player of the game
Stewart quickly set the tone for the Mist on both ends of the court. She was one of the league’s best scorers and most efficient shooters throughout the season, and Wednesday she shot 73.3% from the field.
Stewart scored 12 points on 4-of-5 shooting in the first half. By the end of the third, she had 26. And when she stepped up to the free throw line for the winning point, O’Brien said during the trophy presentation that he knew the Mist were going to win.
Turning point
Stewart started the second half on a heater, breaking open the game for the Mist. The score was tied at 43 at halftime, but Stewart helped the Mist quickly build an eight-point lead to give them the momentum for the rest of the night.
Opening the third, Stewart outscored the Phantom 12-2 on her own, accounting for all of the Mist’s points in that run. During this stretch, the Phantom went to a small-ball lineup — in part because, without Boston, they had no bigs to back up Iriafen. Natasha Cloud was forced to guard Stewart for extended periods, and Stewart took advantage of the mismatch.
The Phantom climbed back into the game, cutting the lead from 10 to four points, with Plum leading the way. But the Mist lead was too much to overcome.
Semifinal results
(1) Phantom 83, (6) Vinyl 75
Playing without injured Boston (18.9 PPG, 9.7 RPG), the top-seeded Phantom trailed 49-46 at halftime despite Plum’s 18 points. Forward Dearica Hamby dominated the second quarter, scoring 11 points on 7-of-9 shooting for the Vinyl. They stretched the lead to eight points early in the third, but then Cloud (14 points, 4 assists, 2 steals) stepped up the Phantom defense and Plum took over offensively.
For the sixth time this season, Plum hit the game-winner — a step-back 3-pointer — to clinch a spot in the final. The guard finished 12-of-19 from the field, including 4-of-8 on 3-pointers. Iriafen, starting in place of Boston, added 17 points (8-of-13 from the field). Hamby finished with 30 points (11-of-14 from the field) and Rhyne Howard added 16, but hit 2 of 9 3-pointers after draining eight from beyond the arc in the first round.
(2) Mist 73, (5) Breeze 69
It was all Breeze early on. They opened on a 13-0 run. The Mist’s Stewart missed her first five shots and was whistled for her third foul with 3 minutes, 18 seconds left in the first quarter. The Breeze dominated the paint and led by as many as 16 points. But then the Mist heated up, outscoring the Breeze 28-18 in the second quarter to cut the lead to 44-38 at halftime.
On her 29th birthday, Ogunbowale helped take over late in the game. The guard scored eight points in the fourth period (Stewart scored seven) and hit the game-winning 3-pointer. The top scoring reserve at Unrivaled in the regular season, Ogunbowale finished with 21 points, going 5-for-9 on 3-pointers. Stewart had 13 of her game-high 23 points in the second half, Alanna Smith was a perfect 3-for-3 from downtown and Gray hit some timely buckets in the comeback.
For the Breeze, Dominique Malonga had a team-high 18 points and game-high 14 rebounds. Paige Bueckers (8-of-22 from field) and Rickea Jackson each had 17 points.
First-round results
(6) Vinyl 82, (3) Laces 69
The game was won in the third period. The Vinyl trailed by four at halftime, but Howard scored 13 straight Vinyl points and finished with 21 of her team’s 29 third-quarter points. Howard single-handedly outscored the Laces, who finished the period with 17 points.
(5) Breeze 69, (4) Rose 50
Bueckers set the tone early. From an and-1 on the opening possession to a 3-pointer in the fourth period, the guard scored from all three levels. Bueckers finished with a game-high 29 points, hitting 11-of-19 field goals, including 4-for-5 on 3-pointers. Malonga scored six of her eight points in the fourth quarter, but her 17 rebounds were even bigger.
