NEW YORK (AP) — Arike Ogunbowale celebrated her 29th birthday Monday night by hitting a game-winning 3-pointer at a packed Barclays Center to lift Mist to the Unrivaled championship game.
The former Notre Dame great is no stranger to hitting big 3s; she led the Fighting Irish to the national championship in 2018 with game-ending shots from behind the arc in both the Final Four and the title game.
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Mist BC wing Arike Ogunbowale (24) shoots over Breeze BC guard Paige Bueckers (5) during the second half of a semifinal in an Unrivaled 3-on-3 basketball game, Monday, March 2, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Breeze BC guard Paige Bueckers (5) celebrates after scoring during the first half of a semifinal an Unrivaled 3-on-3 basketball game against Mist BC, Monday, March 2, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Phantom BC guard Kelsey Plum (10) shoots over Vinyl BC guard Erica Wheeler (17) during the second half of a semifinal in their Unrivaled 3-on-3 basketball game, Monday, March 2, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Vinyl BC guard Erica Wheeler (17) drives past Phantom BC guard Kelsey Plum (10) during the first half of a semifinal in their Unrivaled 3-on-3 basketball game, Monday, March 2, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
The difference this time, she said, was that money was on the line.
“It may not be the same level, but that's more money than I made in college, 100K on the line,” Ogunbowale said laughing.
By making the finals, Mist has a chance to take home the $600,000 prize pool that will be split among the players from the winning team Wednesday. Mist will face top-seeded Phantom BC at Unrivaled's home arena in Miami.
Phantom advanced to the title game behind 31 points from Kelsey Plum in a 83-75 win over Vinyl in the first semifinal of the 3-on-3 league.
After the success of taking the league to Philadelphia in late January for a weekend that drew over 21,490 fans, Unrivaled decided to move the semifinals to New York a few weeks ago. Playing at Barclays Center was a homecoming for Stewart, the Unrivaled co-founder who led the New York Liberty to its first WNBA championship in 2024.
The star-studded sellout crowd of 18,261 for the semifinal games included basketball greats Carmelo Anthony and Sue Bird; actors Ashton Kutcher and Jason Sudeikis, and gold medal-winning U.S. hockey player Hilary Knight.
The crowd gave a loud ovation to Liberty guard Natasha Cloud, who walked down to the court through the fans as she was introduced before the first game.
She gave them a lot to cheer about as she rallied Phantom in the third quarter from a 59-50 deficit. Cloud drew an offensive foul on one end and then had a three-point play on the other. Her team was up 71-64 heading into the final quarter, which meant it needed 11 points to win under the league's format.
Vinyl got within 78-75 before Phantom scored the final five points, including the game-winner by Plum on a fadeaway 3-pointer.
Vinyl was looking to get back to the championship game. The team lost to Rose BC for last year's title. Dearica Hamby led the way for Vinyl with 30 points.
Hamby's Los Angeles Sparks teammate Rickea Jackson got Breeze going early in the second game, scoring 13 points in the opening quarter as the team went up 26-10. Mist rallied to within 44-38 at the half as Stewart hit a floater in the lane just before the halftime buzzer.
Breeze extended its advantage to 62-55 after three quarters before Stewart rallied Mist. Trailing 67-60 in the fourth quarter — with 73 points needed to win — Stewart scored seven straight, including a three-point play to tie the game.
Alanna Smith then hit a 3-pointer to give Mist its first lead of the game, 70-67. After a layup by Cameron Brink brought Breeze within one, Ogunbowale ended the game when she hit a tough 3-pointer from the corner.
Paige Bueckers had 17 points and 10 rebounds to lead Breeze.
Chelsea Gray of Rose BC won the league's MVP award on Monday. The guard, who won Unrivaled's 1-on-1 tournament last month, averaged 24.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 6.1 assists. Gray broke her own league single-season assists record with 85 in 14 games. She had nine games with 20 or more points and 10 contests with five or more assists. She also tied the league single-game 3-pointers record with 10 on Feb. 22.
Gray accepted the trophy before the start of the first game.
“I want to say thank you to everyone who voted. I love this game. Want to be great every night and that's always my goal,” Gray said. “Women's basketball is where it's at, shows by all you guys coming out and watching us compete every single night.”
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
Mist BC wing Arike Ogunbowale (24) shoots over Breeze BC guard Paige Bueckers (5) during the second half of a semifinal in an Unrivaled 3-on-3 basketball game, Monday, March 2, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Breeze BC guard Paige Bueckers (5) celebrates after scoring during the first half of a semifinal an Unrivaled 3-on-3 basketball game against Mist BC, Monday, March 2, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Phantom BC guard Kelsey Plum (10) shoots over Vinyl BC guard Erica Wheeler (17) during the second half of a semifinal in their Unrivaled 3-on-3 basketball game, Monday, March 2, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Vinyl BC guard Erica Wheeler (17) drives past Phantom BC guard Kelsey Plum (10) during the first half of a semifinal in their Unrivaled 3-on-3 basketball game, Monday, March 2, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration and its allies in Congress presented a shifting new justification Monday for the U.S. attack on Iran, with House Speaker Mike Johnson suggesting that the White House believed Israel was determined to act on its own, leaving the president with a “very difficult decision."
The Republican was speaking late Monday after a classified briefing at the Capitol, the first for congressional leaders since the start of the war, a joint U.S.-Israel military campaign that killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and has quickly spiraled into a widening Middle East conflict. Hundreds have died, including at least six U.S. military service personnel.
Johnson said the attack on Iran was a “defensive operation” because Israel was ready to act against Iran, “with or without American support.” He said President Donald Trump and his team determined that Iran would immediately retaliate against U.S. personnel and assets.
“The commander in chief has said this is going to be an operation that is short in duration,” Johnson said. “We certainly hope that’s true.”
The remarkable shift in the Trump administration's stated rationale comes as the hostilities deepen and widen across the region. The president himself estimated the war could drag on for weeks. The administration plans to seek supplemental funds from Congress to support the military effort, lawmakers said, in stark contrast to the president's America First campaign not to entangle the U.S. in actions abroad.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the “hardest hits are yet to come” as the U.S. is determined to continue attacking Iran for as long as it takes with an “even more punishing” next phase in the war.
Rubio described what was essentially a potentially ripple effect that he said posed an “imminent threat" to the U.S.
“We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action,” he said. “And we knew that if we didn’t preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.”
Rubio said that while the U.S. would like to see the Iranian people rise up and be rid of the regime, “that’s not the objective,” he said. “The objective of this mission is to make sure they don’t have these weapons that can threaten us and our allies in the region.”
Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other administration officials delivered the classified briefing as Congress weighs a war powers resolution that would restrain Trump’s ability to keep waging war without approval from the House and Senate.
Trump himself, speaking at the White House, laid out four objectives for the war, saying U.S. forces are out to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, wipe out its naval capacity, stop the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon and ensure "that the Iranian regime cannot continue to arm, fund and direct terrorist armies outside of their borders.”
“This was our last, best chance to strike — what we’re doing right now — and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime,” Trump said.
Trump met repeatedly with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as they sought to curb Iran's nuclear program, including last month at the White House.
Hegseth earlier Monday vowed this is not an “endless war,” even as he warned more U.S. casualties are likely in the weeks ahead.
But Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, said: “There was no imminent threat to the United States of America by the Iranians. There was a threat to Israel.”
Warner said he has now heard four or five stated reasons for the attack. He demanded that Trump “come before Congress, and for that matter, the American people,” to make his case for war — and the exit plan.
Several Democrats delivered blistering speeches against the war. “Are we now such an enfeebled nation that Israel decides when we go to war?” said Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon, voice rising.
The moment is a defining one for Congress, which alone has the authority under the U.S. Constitution to declare war, and for the Republican president, who has consistently seized power during his second term with his own executive reach.
Trump took the nation to war at a particularly vulnerable time, as the Department of Homeland Security is operating without routine funds because of a standoff with Democrats over their demands to restrain his immigration enforcement operations. The potential wartime costs in terms of lives lost and dollars spent are dividing the parties, and potentially Americans themselves.
Unlike the run-up to the Iraq War in 2003, which included long debates in Congress in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, or the more recent U.S. military strikes on Venezuela that proved to be limited, the joint U.S.-Israel military attack on Iran, called Operation Epic Fury, is well underway, with no foreseeable end in sight.
“It’s worrisome,” Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, told The Associated Press.
Smith said of Trump: “He is not trying to making his case to the Congress or the American people. He unilaterally decided to do this.”
In fact, Congress has declared war just five times in the nation's history, most recently in 1941, to enter World War II a day after the Pearl Harbor attack. Over time, presidents of both major political parties have accumulated vast authority to engage in what are often more limited U.S. military strikes.
Johnson said tying Trump's hands right now would be “frightening" as he works to defeat the war powers resolution.
Even if Congress is able to pass the measure this week, the House and the Senate would be unlikely to tally the two-thirds majority needed to overcome a presidential veto.
As the Trump administration encourages the Iranian people to rise up and choose new leaders, there did not appear to be widespread U.S. support for any effort at democracy- or nation-building.
“We would love to see this regime be replaced," Rubio said. “If there’s something we can do to help them down the road, we'd obviously be open to it. But that’s not the objective."
A top Trump ally, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said he never bought into the you-break-it-you-own-it concept in wartime.
“If there’s a threat to America, deal with it," he said over the weekend. "That doesn’t mean you own everything that follows.”
Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., arrives for an intelligence briefing on Iran with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and top lawmakers, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, March. 2, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Senate Intelligence Committee Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., speaks to reporters following a House and Senate Intelligence Committees briefing about the war in Iran at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., speaks to reporters following a House and Senate Intelligence Committee briefing about the Iran war at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to reporters as he arrives for an intelligence briefing with top lawmakers on Iran, at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
House Speaker Mike Johnson of La., speaks to reporters following a House and Senate Intelligence Committee briefing about the Iran war at the Capitol in Washington, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., appears before President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks to reporters before his scheduled House and Senate Intelligence Committees briefing about Iran on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, March 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
The U.S. Capitol is photographed Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
The U.S. Capitol is photographed Friday, Feb. 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Rahmat Gul)
