The second season of Incomparable is now officially available.
Breanna Stewart and the Mists jumped out to a second-half lead over Kelsey Plum and the top-seeded Phantom on Wednesday night in the unbeatable championship game in South Florida. After losing to the Phantoms twice in the regular season, the Misty defeated the Phantoms 80-74 at Sephora Arena in the second game of the new three-on-three league held during the WNBA offseason to win the championship.
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Ultimately, each Mist player will receive a $100,000 prize. This is an increase from the $50,000 each Rose BC player received last season for winning the championship.
Plum Blossoms performed poorly in the first quarter. She dropped 18 of her team’s 24 points in the opening frame and shot a near-perfect 7-of-8 from the field with four 3-pointers. But once she got on the bench, the Phantoms’ offense stalled. The Misty team ended the quarter with a 6-0 burst and tied the score on the first break. The teams traded back and forth in the second quarter and it looked like the Mist would take the lead going into halftime, but Natasha Crowder tied the game again with a 3-pointer at the buzzer.
But that’s when Stewart finally took off. She started the third quarter with a hook shot and a 3-pointer early, then a two-and-one in the paint. That gave the Misty an immediate six-point lead – their largest lead of the game at that point. She completed the pick-and-roll perfectly, received a pass from Veronica Burton, immediately made an easy layup, and went solo to take a 10-0 lead.
After that, the Mist easily hit the target score of 79 points, easily ended the game, and won the championship and the $600,000 prize money that came with it.
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Plumb scored 40 points and made 6 of 7 shots from beyond the arc, leading the Phantoms to a loss. Her 40 points also set an Unrivaled playoff record. Iriafen scored 13 points and 11 rebounds, and Hayes scored 12 points.
Stewart led the Mists with a career-high 32 points and 4 rebounds in the victory, shooting 11-for-15 from the field. Arike Ogunbowale scored 19 points off the bench and Allisha Gray scored 12 points.
While the second edition of the league is well underway and has undoubtedly been fun along the way, all eyes in the women’s basketball world will now turn to the battle between the WNBA and the Players Association – who are still trying to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement in time for the season to begin on May 8. Given how tumultuous these negotiations have been in recent months, Wednesday night could be the last game for professional women’s basketball in quite some time.
This article will be updated soon with more information.