The Mist are through to the Unrivaled finals after Monday night’s thrilling comeback win over the Breeze, and they have one special star to thank.
Arike Ogunbowale helped lift her team to the 73-69 victory despite the Breeze leading for most of the contest. The Mist battled back from a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter to take a one-point lead by the end of the game; then, Ogunbowale did what she does best and drilled a clutch three-pointer on a second-chance look to seal the Mist’s spot in the championship game—and on her 28th birthday, to boot.
Here’s a replay of her emphatic game-winning shot:
Arike Ogunbowale sends the Mist to the Unrivaled Championship.pic.twitter.com/qPhCcpUWxB
— Underdog WNBA (@UnderdogWNBA) March 3, 2026
Monday’s sold-out game at Barclays Center featured several sports stars and celebrities —including UConn’s Azzi Fudd, WNBA legend Sue Bird, USWNT icons Kelley O’Hara and Alex Morgan and women’s sports mega-fan Jason Sudeikis—in attendance.
Ogunbowale, a four-time WNBA All-Star, faced off against her fellow Wings teammate Paige Bueckers, who entered the matchup leading the Breeze with 22.1 points and 5.5 assists per game. But Bueckers’s side ultimately couldn’t hold off a tenacious Mist squad featuring elite shot-makers like Ogunbowale (21 points), Breanna Stewart (23 points) and Allisha Gray (12 points) who fought until the very end for their sweet come-from-behind victory.
The Mist will face the Phantom, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, on Wednesday in Miami, with a $600,000 prize pool for the league’s champion. After Unrivaled wraps up, players will start preparing for the WNBA regular season which will tip-off on May 8, assuming the WNBPA and the league finalize a new collective bargaining agreement by then.
“We as players, we don’t want to strike,” Bueckers said of the drawn-out standoff between the WNBA and players’ union. “We want to have a season. I love playing basketball. That’s all I want to do. But again, there are things that need to be handled, and we want to do it as professionals.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Watch Arike Ogunbowale’s Clutch Three-Pointer That Sent Mist to Unrivaled Finals.
