Let’s recap the first week of the Unrivaled season.
On Jan. 5, the highly anticipated second season of Unrivaled began. This year, two new teams joined the team for a total of eight teams. The new additions are the Breeze, with captain Paige Bueckers, and Hive, with captain Sonia Citron.
Team Records
The defending champions, Rose BC, and the Mist have both started the season undefeated, with three and two wins, respectively. The Mist have a record of 2-1. Both the Laces and Phantom are 1-1. Team Vinyl has one win and two losses while the Lunar Owls and Hive have yet to win a game.
Connecticut Sun Players
Three players from the WNBA Connecticut Sun team are playing in Unrivaled. Aaliyah Edwards and Marina Mabrey play on the Lunar Owls and Saniya Rivers plays on Hive. All three players are looking for the first win of the season.
Aaliyah Edwards had a strong start during her first game of the season. She had 23 points and 12 rebounds. At the end of the third quarter, Edwards was fouled and had an upper body injury and was out for the remainder of the game. She was probable coming into the Lunar Owls second game and scored 13 points in her 19 minutes of play.
Marina Mabrey scored 23 points in her first game and 32 in her second. She was 5-for-11 from the three-point range.
Saniya Rivers broke an Unrivaled record in her second game in the league. She had six blocked shots in just one game. The previous record was five. In her first game of the season, Rivers scored four points in her six minutes of play time and in her second game, she scored 12 points and had seven rebounds.
Top Players of the First Week
Chelsea Gray from Rose BC, has had an amazing start to the season. In the first game against the Lunar Owls, Gray scored 35 points, five of which were three pointers, and had five rebounds. Gray dominated for her team all game. During the second game against Phantom, she scored 23 points, had five rebounds and one blocked shot. In both games, Gray had the game-winning three point shot.
Paige Bueckers did exactly what fans expected her to do in her first season in Unrivaled. In her first game, playing Phantom, she had 24 points and two blocked shots. Playing Hive, in her second game, Buckers has 16 points, 10 rebounds and scored the game-winning shot.
Club captain for the Phantom, Kelsey Plum, has had an unbelievable start to the season. In the first game against the Breeze, she scored 12 points and had five rebounds. In the second game, playing the Lunar Owls, Plum had 38 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds. Her 38 points tied the Unrivaled single-game record.
An Unrivaled scoring record was broken on Jan 11.Dearica Hamby’s game winning shot for Vinyl was her 40th point of the game and the new Unrivaled scoring high. Along with that, Hamby had 10 rebounds and two assists during that game.