Laces came out roaring and ready to reassert sole (or Solemates\u2019?) claim to first place in the Unrivaled standings on Monday night. Yet, their eventual 67-62 win over Mist would not be as easy as it might have looked early on.<\/p>\n
Up 15-8 after a defensively-tilted first quarter, Laces maintained a comfortable margin as the offenses came alive in the second, up by nine points, 36-27, at the half. Alyssa Thomas already had tallied a double-double for the Solemates, with 10 points and 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n
The third quarter, however, belonged to Mist. And more specifically, it belonged to Arike Ogunbowale.<\/p>\n
Ogunbowale ignited for one of her signature scoring eruptions, responsible for 12 of Mist\u2019s 27 points in the period. Supported by a couple of 3s from Breanna Stewart and Veronica Burton, Mist was down by just a single point entering the fourth, 55-54. A late Thomas free throw gave Laces the lead after seven-straight points from Ogunbowale and Allisha Gray had pushed Mist ahead.<\/p>\n
When the fourth began, Laces would expand on that slight edge.<\/p>\n
Naz Hillmon, who had just three points through three quarters, scored the first six points for Laces, which were balanced by a single bucket from Mist. Naz\u2019s efforts put Laces just five points away from the 66-point target score.<\/p>\n
A triple from Gray brought Mist within striking distance before two scores from Thomas set up Jackie Young to finish the job for Laces.<\/p>\n
AT earned Player of the Game honors, finishing with a season-high 20 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and three steals. It was an all-round, stat-stuffing effort exemplary of The Engine. Ogunbowale\u2019s 17 points led Mist, with Stewart finishing with 16 points and nine boards.<\/p>\n
At 7-2, Laces exit Week 4 atop the standings, with 6-3 Mist falling into third place, as Phantom, also at 6-3, has the head-to-head advantage over the Misties.<\/p>\n
Sonia Citron almost had Hive buzzing past Vinyl<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a rough Unrivaled rookie season for Sonia Citron.<\/p>\n
After her seemingly seamless transition to the WNBA, Citron\u2019s 3-point stroke has been off in Unrivaled, with her shooting struggles exacerbating the overall challenges Hive has faced in their inaugural Unrivaled season.<\/p>\n
On Monday night, Soni had her long-awaited Unrivaled breakout. She scored 32 points, going 12-for-18 from the field and 4-for-7 from 3. She also contributed five assists, two blocks and a steal.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, Citron\u2019s stellar night was not enough for Hive, as Vinyl prevailed 74-71 in the back-and-forth affair.<\/p>\n
This one was tight from the jump, and would feature 11 lead changes and 13 ties. Vinyl\u2019s balance, however, overcame not only Citron\u2019s big game, but also a huge double-double from Monique Billings, who finished with 23 points and 15 rebounds for Hive.<\/p>\n
Five members of Vinyl scored in double figures, led by Rae Burrell\u2019s 18 points. Burrell, who made two 3s and added three assists, three assists and a block, showed that her Saturday star turn was not an outlier, earning her second-straight Player of the Game honor. Dearica Hamby contributed 14 points and eight boards, while Rhyne Howard dished seven assists, her Unrivaled career-high, to go with her 10 points.<\/p>\n
Vinyl entered the fourth up 63-59, as a Brittney Griner bucket as the third quarter expired seemed to set the club up to take control and cruise to the 74-point target score. Citron had other ideas, striving to singularly drag Hive to victory with 10 points in period, including a 3-pointer that pulled her club within one point of Hive, 72-71, and within three points of the target. With a stop, Hive would have the chance to steal the win.<\/p>\n
Howard turned on her aggression on Vinyl\u2019s next possession, driving at Citron. Rhyne missed, but a somewhat questionable foul called on Citron sent Howard to the line. Rhyne sunk the free throw to secure the game for Vinyl, keeping the now 4-5 club in position for a playoff berth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Laces came out roaring and ready to reassert sole (or Solemates\u2019?) claim to first place in the Unrivaled…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,18419,434],"class_list":["post-447554","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-unrivaled","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}