MEDLEY, Fla. — She was a two-time state champion in highschool popping out of the Syracuse space. She then was a four-time NCAA champion at UConn. She’s received three WNBA titles, three World Cup gold medals, three Olympic gold medals, even two EuroLeague titles.

And now, add an Unmatched title to the combination — a league that she co-founded.

Breanna Stewart has received all of it.

Stewart and Mist are the queens of Unmatched for 2026, topping Phantom 80-74 within the championship sport Wednesday evening to cap the league’s second season. Stewart scored 32 factors, setting the tone by scoring Mist’s first 12 factors of the second half and her staff — which went 0-2 in opposition to Phantom within the common season — wouldn’t path once more.

“What I am going to bear in mind essentially the most about this Mist staff is we’d not be the loudest, however we’ll work the toughest,” mentioned Stewart, who was picked as MVP of the ultimate — and whose staff will cut up a $600,000 winners’ pool.

It ended considerably controversially: an offensive foul on Stewart was overturned to a block on overview, giving her a free throw to win the title. Stewart swished the shot, and confetti fell from the roof in celebration.

“Simply targeted on doing it for my staff,” Stewart mentioned.

Kelsey Plum carried Phantom with 40 factors on 14-for-21 taking pictures, together with six rebounds and 5 assists.

It was an excellent effort — however Stewart and Mist had only a bit an excessive amount of.

“It is exhausting when it ends like this,” Plum mentioned. “However total, it was an incredible season.”

Arike Ogunbowale had 19 and Allisha Grey scored 12 for Mist, whereas Kiki Iriafen scored 13 and Tiffany Hayes had 12 for Phantom.

“There was full religion on this group,” Mist coach Zach O’Brien mentioned. “I am simply glad we acquired it achieved.”

Stewart and Napheesa Collier are credited because the co-founders of the league, one which if nothing else has stuffed a void on calendar for the ladies’s professional sport.

“I believe that there was an area that wasn’t type of getting used so far as what skilled girls’s basketball gamers have been doing,” Stewart mentioned. “We used to have a seven-month blackout interval the place you didn’t know what these skilled basketball gamers have been doing. And now .”

The query is what comes subsequent.

The WNBA and its gamers don’t have a labor settlement for subsequent season, one that’s slated — at this level — to start out in about two months. The WNBA has advised the gamers’ union that it must get a deal in place by this coming Tuesday to start out the season on time.

And for now, there’s no indication that’ll occur. Meaning the Mist-Phantom ultimate could possibly be the final skilled girls’s sport within the U.S. for some time.

Some will level to poor tv scores as an indication of bother, whereas others can level to crowds drawn this season in Brooklyn and Philadelphia as indicators of potential for Unmatched. Gamers say it really works, and there is no plans to cease now.

“Individuals in all probability doubt us, that we will maintain it,” Unmatched CEO Alex Bazzell mentioned. “That is what drives us and that is additionally what drives these gamers They’re all opponents and we’re, too.”

Unmatched — a 3-on-3, full-court sport performed on a 72-foot ground, shorter than an NBA or faculty courtroom — sells itself on being fast-paced, with an 18-second shot clock, 7-minute quarters and loads of open house for gamers to create.

The title sport didn’t disappoint in that regard.

They have been the highest two seeds coming into the playoffs — Phantom 1, Mist 2 — and Wednesday was forwards and backwards. It was 24-24 after one quarter, 43-43 on the half, neither staff having led by greater than seven at any level.

Mist led 68-62 going to the fourth, an untimed ultimate quarter the place 11 factors get added to the main rating because the end-of-game goal.

To win the title: first staff to 79 wins. Mist scored the primary six factors of the ultimate quarter, going up by 12. Plum answered with 5 straight factors, pushing her complete to 35 for the evening and getting Phantom inside 74-67.

However Mist held the lead the remainder of the best way, and Stewart — as she has so many occasions — had a title to savor.

“It was our aim from Day One to be right here, to be on this podium,” O’Brien mentioned.

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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball