Grant Young | Sports Illustrated
The Unrivaled one-on-one women’s basketball tournament has undoubtedly been one of the highlights of this league’s inaugural season.
There’s nothing like the world’s best basketball players going mano a mano while being broadcast on national TV. And while a ton of players have impressed across the tournament, the top who stood out among the pack were both former UConn Huskies: Unrivaled co-founder and Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier and 2024 WNBA rookie for the Washington Mystics, Aaliyah Edwards.
These two stars met in the Unrivaled one-on-one tournament final after Edwards defeated Arike Ogunbowale and Collier beat Azurá Stevens during the Semifinals.
Unlike the rest of the tournament, the Finals were a best-of-three series, with each game being to 8 points instead of 11. Edwards secured Game 1 by a score of 9-6. Then Collier secured a smooth Game 2 victory by a score of 9-4.
Therefore, the tournament — and $200,000 cash prize to the winner — all came down to Game 3.
And it was Napheesa Collier who emerged victorious in Game 3, blanking Edwards by a score of 8-0 and as a result, getting crowned as the first Unrivaled one-on-one champion in the league’s history.
It was a successful evening for all four semifinalists, as they all got $25,000 for getting this far in the tournament. Being the runner-up, Edwards got $50,000. And every player on Lunar Owls BC gets $10,000 solely from being Collier’s teammate.
The Unrivaled broadcast noted how Collier was keen on doing this one-on-one tournament when putting the league together with co-founder Breanna Stewart. And we can now understand why.