Mist’s Allisha Gray-Arike Ogunbowale duo headlined a night of guard excellence at Unrivaled

Backcourt excellence was on full display at Unrivaled on Friday night.

In Mist’s 89-71 victory over Rose, Arike Ogunbowale and Allisha Gray took care of their opponent right away. They combined for over half of their team’s points in the blowout win.

Phantom was in a much closer contest, but still won with relative ease, beating Vinyl 78-69. For Phantom, Kelsey Plum scored 18 points, while Aliyah Boston broke into the guard party by being a dominant big. Boston scored 21 points and had a game-high 11 rebounds.

Different teams have different strengths.

Mist leaned on their guard play, and despite Rose having some great bigs and an elite guard of their own in Chelsea Gray, they couldn’t keep up with the offensive firepower Gray and Ogunbowale provided. Although Phantom relied a bit more on Boston, Plum was the sparkplug for the team’s energy and compete level. She established the pace, and Boston was able to work alongside her to overwhelm Vinyl.

Allisha and Arike put on a shooting show

Gray’s 28 points and Ogunbowale’s 21 put Mist in position to win.

Not only did Gray help her team taste the glory of victory, but she also earned some accolades. She is only the second player in Unrivaled to reach the 400 career points mark.

While Gray and Ogunbowale were the leading scorers for Mist, they got plenty of scoring up and down their lineup. Breanna Stewart had 19 points, and as a team, they went 12-for-25 on 3-pointers.

With so many baskets coming from beyond the arc, they blew the game wide open in the second quarter and led by 18 at the half. Shakira Austin tried her best to keep Rose in this game with her 29 points and 10 rebounds, but it just wan’t enough to overcome Mist’s overwhelming offense.

Rose is now a .500 team, and Mist has won four of their first six games.

Phantom found a way to close out Vinyl

It took a full team effort for Phantom to beat Vinyl.

While Boston played great, she fouled out early in the fourth, forcing her team to earn their last 10 points without her. They got it done thanks to Kiki Iriafen attacking the basket and Plum remaining cool and controlling the offense down the stretch. Iriafen ended the game with 15 points, including scoring the game-clinching basket down low.

While Boston, Plum and Iriafen shined, Natasha Cloud was equally impressive. She had a balanced game with 12 points, four rebounds and three assists.

Vinyl went on runs and got close multiple times, but they could never gain the lead in the second half. Dearica Hamby led the charge with 26 points and Rhyne Howard was right behind her with 20.

However, their guards, Courtney Williams and Erica Wheeler, struggled. They combined for 11 points on 4-for-12 shooting. That’s simply not enough to win in Unrivaled unless someone else has a monster game. Hamby and Howard played well, but didn’t score enough to overcome weaker games from their teammates.