Unrivaled: Chelsea Gray authors epic clutch plays for undefeated Rose

It’s early, but Rose and Breeze have quickly established themselves as top talents in Unrivaled’s second season.

Rose’s quality is established and known. They won it all last year, came out on top in their season opener against the Lunar Owls and beat Vinyl 69-67 on Friday night.

Breeze, on the other hand, are the new kids on the block. They are one of the two expansion team and feature Unrivaled rookies like Paige Bueckers and Dominique Malonga, but, like Rose, they are now 2-0 on the year after defeating Hive 73-62.

Here’s how each team came out on top and to remaine undefeated in Unrivaled.

Chelsea Gray to the rescue—again!

For the second-straight game, Chelsea Gray gets the game-winner for Rose. In their first game, it was a 3-point shot in essentially a blowout. The game against Vinyl on Friday night was a much tighter affair.

In the fourth quarter, Rose found themselves trailing 65-59, with Vinyl needing just four more points to reach the 69-point target score to secure the victory.

Gray decided to bring out her Point Gawd capabilities and flipped the script quickly. First, she inbounded the ball to Azurá Stevens, who converted on the field goal attempt to make it a four-point game. Then, after a Courtney Williams layup gave Vinyl some points, Stevens dished the ball to Shakira Austin to keep Rose within striking distance. Vinyl had a shot at scoring the game-winner, but Gray stole the ball from Williams and then went coast-to-coast and hit a near logo 3 to make it a one-point game.

Williams went on to miss on the next possession, and then Gray took a leaning 3-pointer to end the game—and she did.

She hit the basket while falling to the ground as Unrivaled announcer Brendan Glasheen exclaimed, “You are not human! You are not human!”

It was the first and only lead Rose had in the contest, but it came when it mattered most.

What makes the loss all the more frustrating for Vinyl is that they led by double figures for most of the first half. A bad third quarter and an even worse fourth, however, sealed their fate.

For Rose, Gray ended the night with 23 points, five rebounds and five assists. Austin contributed a double-double with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Rhyne Howard scored 28 on 10-for-16 shooting, and Dearica Hamby finished the night with 19 points and 11 boards.

Paige Bueckers is good at basketball

Be it high school, college or the WNBA, Bueckers has dominated everywhere she has played.

It seems that Unrivaled will not be an exception.

Bueckers led her team in points and assists in Breeze’s season opener, and in her encore performance, she scored 16 points on 7-for-14 shooting. She also had 10 rebounds and a game-high six assists.

Bueckers is nothing short of a magician with the ball. She is always in complete control. And whether she pushes the ball ahead, makes a bounce pass or a mesmerizing skip pass, it typically leads to a good look at the basket and a positive result for her team.

Thanks to Bueckers being a willing passer and the offensive firepower Breeze has with Rickea Jackson and Malonga, they controlled the game from the jump, never trailed and cruised to a 73-62 win.

Hive is now 0-2, and while one doesn’t want to overreact to the first two games, it’s looking tough early for the other expansion team. They seem a bit undersized, and with Brink and Malonga on the other side, they were outrebounded 42-28 in this contest.

Also, scoring was an issue for Hive. Both Monique Billings and Ezi Magbegor struggled from the field, converting on just 40 percent of their shots. As a team, they went a horrendous 0-for-13 from 3-point range. Wins aren’t going to happen in any professional basketball league if you are literally never hitting your outside shots.

Hive will play against Vinyl on Sunday, so one of these teams will be guaranteed a victory this weekend. And with Rose and Breeze also playing one another to end the weekend, one of these teams will be guaranteed their first loss before business days commence.

I’m not sure how the schedule makers knew this scenario was going to happen, but they’ve cooked up a great ending to Week 2 with these matchups.