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Angel Reese reacted on social media to Arike Ogunbowale’s game-winning three-pointer that sent Mist to the Unrivaled championship game against Phantom
WNBA superstar Angel Reese reacted just like everyone else when Arike Ogunbowale sank a game-winning shot to propel her team to the Unrivaled championship game.
Mist’s Ogunbowale delivered the decisive blow to knock out Paige Bueckers and Breeze on Monday night, securing an epic Unrivaled championship showdown against top-seeded Phantom on Wednesday in Miami, Florida. This occurred as Azzi Fudd was seen cheering on Bueckers, her former UConn teammate, during the semifinal contest in New York City.
With Mist ahead 70-69, three points shy of the game-winning target score of 73, Ogunbowale launched a fadeaway three-pointer from the left corner, a bold move to seal her team’s comeback victory and end Bueckers and Breeze’s season. Meanwhile, Kelsey Plum has made her feelings clear on a WNBA pay strike as negotiations continue.
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As the ball swished through the net, Ogunbowale, her teammates, including Unrivaled co-founder and New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart, and the 18,000-plus capacity crowd at the Barclays Center erupted.
Reese, whose Rose team was knocked out by Breeze in the opening round of the Unrivaled playoffs, shared her reaction to Ogunbowale’s dramatic shot on social media. “omg ARIKE,” Reese posted on X.
Reese was absent for much of the Unrivaled season before linking up with Rose in late February.
Across three games, she posted averages of 13 points and 10.3 rebounds. The WNBA star will soon join forces with Caitlin Clark, Bueckers, and others on Team USA’s World Cup qualifying squad later this month.
Even though Reese plays for a different WNBA and Unrivaled team than Ogunbowale, she expressed her awe at the crucial shot, marking another thrilling moment in a successful second season of Unrivaled.
Ogunbowale’s shot sent Mist to the Unrivaled championship game(Image: Photo by Leonardo Fernandez/Getty Images)
Monday’s semifinals marked the second occasion that the 3-on-3 league, which premiered last year, sold out an NBA arena. The first was at Philadelphia’s Xfinity Mobile Arena in January when Marina Mabrey set a new Unrivaled scoring record with 47 points and 10 three-pointers.
Unrivaled’s popularity continues to surge amidst ongoing WNBA labor negotiations that could potentially delay or even cancel the upcoming 2026 season.
On Monday night, Unrivaled fans voiced their opinions on the WNBA’s CBA crisis as the breakaway league generated $1 million in gate revenue from the two semifinal games.
Before Ogunbowale and Mist completed a 16-point comeback to advance to the championship, Phantom, the best regular season team with an 11-4 record, defeated Vinyl with a final score of 83-75, thanks to Kelsey Plum’s 31 points.
Now, the top two regular season finishers and first-round bye recipients will compete for the Unrivaled title, which offers a prize pool of $600,000 for the victorious team.
Phantom triumphed in both regular season games against Mist this year, most recently on Feb. 7 with a final score of 83-71.
