League

She was a two-time state champion in high school coming out of the Syracuse area. She then was a four-time NCAA champion at UConn. She’s won three WNBA titles, three World Cup gold medals, three Olympic gold medals, even two EuroLeague titles.

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

Breanna Stewart has won it all.

Stewart and Mist are the queens of Unrivaled for 2026, topping Phantom 80-74 in the championship game Wednesday night to cap the league’s second season. Stewart scored 32 points, setting the tone by scoring Mist’s first 12 points of the second half and her team — which went 0-2 against Phantom in the regular season — wouldn’t trail again.

“What I’ll remember the most about this Mist team is we might not be the loudest, but we’re going to work the hardest,” said Stewart, who was picked as MVP of the final — and whose team will split a $600,000 winners’ pool.

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

“Just focused on doing it for my team,” Stewart said.

Sparks star Kelsey Plum carried Phantom with 40 points on 14-for-21 shooting, along with six rebounds and five assists.

It was a brilliant effort — but Stewart and Mist had just a bit too much.

“It’s hard when it ends like this,” Plum said. “But overall, it was an amazing season.”

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

“There was complete faith in this group,” Mist coach Zach O’Brien said. “I’m just glad we got it done.”

Stewart and Napheesa Collier are credited as the co-founders of the league, one that if nothing else has filled a void on calendar for the women’s pro game.

“I think that there was a space that wasn’t kind of being used as far as what professional women’s basketball players were doing,” Stewart said. “We used to have a seven-month blackout period where you didn’t know what these professional basketball players were doing. And now you know.”

The question is what comes next.

The WNBA and its players do not have a labor agreement for next season, one that is slated — at this point — to start in about two months. The WNBA has told the players’ union that it needs to get a deal in place by this coming Tuesday to start the season on time.

And for now, there’s no indication that’ll happen. That means the Mist-Phantom final could be the last pro women’s game in the U.S. for a while.

Some will point to poor television ratings as a sign of trouble, while others can point to crowds drawn this season in Brooklyn and Philadelphia as signs of potential for Unrivaled. Players say it works, and there’s no plans to stop now.

“People probably doubt us, that we can sustain it,” Unrivaled CEO Alex Bazzell said. “That’s what drives us and that’s also what drives these players They’re all competitors and we are, too.”

Unrivaled — a 3-on-3, full-court game played on a 72-foot floor, shorter than an NBA or college court — sells itself on being fast-paced, with an 18-second shot clock, 7-minute quarters and plenty of open space for players to create.

Kelsey Plum dribbles against Veronica Burton in the second quarter.

(Leonardo Fernandez / Getty Images)

The title game didn’t disappoint in that regard.

They were the top two seeds entering the playoffs — Phantom 1, Mist 2 — and Wednesday was back and forth. It was 24-24 after one quarter, 43-43 at the half, neither team having led by more than seven at any point.

Mist led 68-62 going to the fourth, an untimed final quarter where 11 points get added to the leading score as the end-of-game target.

To win the title: first team to 79 wins. Mist scored the first six points of the final quarter, going up by 12. Plum answered with five straight points, pushing her total to 35 for the night and getting Phantom within 74-67.

But Mist held the lead the rest of the way, and Stewart — as she has so many times — had a title to savor.

“It was our goal from Day One to be here, to be on this podium,” O’Brien said.

GOODYEAR, Ariz. — Roki Sasaki’s struggles from his first Cactus League start carried over into Tuesday’s game against the Cleveland Guardians at Goodyear Ballpark.

The Dodgers right-hander gave up three walks and two hits, including a grand slam to Guardians slugger Kyle Manzardo, before he was lifted after 23 pitches. He displayed no command, missing arm side repeatedly and throwing only eight strikes. None of the five batters he faced in the first inning saw a first-pitch strike.

But then, he flashed the tantalizing potential that the Dodgers saw when they signed him before last season.

Re-inserted into the game to start the second inning, which is allowed in spring training, the 24-year-old settled down and retired all six batters he faced in his last two innings of work while throwing 22 pitches — 13 for strikes — in the Dodgers’ 5-4 win.

Working in a healthy mix of fastballs, cutters and splitters, Sasaki struck out two and was able to limit hard contact, which had been an issue for him in the first inning and in his first start last week against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The home run by Manzardo recorded an exit velocity of 104.6 mph.

“I wasn’t overly concerned,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said. “But it was good to see him bounce back.”

Sasaki said through an interpreter after he was lifted from the game that something felt off about his upper-body mechanics. He made a simple adjustment and found success in it.

“It was actually my upper body,” Sasaki said. “My lower half actually felt pretty good. My upper body felt a little off, so I was trying to make an adjustment.”

Said Roberts when asked about Sasaki missing arm side: “Maybe he’s trying to be a little too fine and/or just a little bit out of sync with the delivery. That’s why you have spring training, you work though it, you’ve got to be able to make in-game adjustments. As he gets more experienced, you would expect that to happen in the inning rather than sit for 20 minutes, come in and reset.”

Match of the Day will bring you all the best of the action and talking points from the Premier League on BBC One on Wednesday 4 March at 22:40 GMT.

The BBC Sport website will feature highlights of every Premier League match during the 2025-26 season.

At weekends, these will be available on the BBC Sport app, website and iPlayer on Saturdays and Sundays – ordinarily from 20:00 GMT.

If there is an evening match, highlights from all matches that day will be available 30 minutes after the final game of the day finishes.

Highlights of weeknight matches will be published at 22:30 GMT.

You can join Alex Scott and guests every week on Football Focus (Saturday, 11:30 GMT) for all the big talking points, reaction and interviews with players.

Don’t miss any of the goals as they go in on Final Score – starting on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Red Button from 14:45 GMT and BBC One at 16:30 GMT on Saturdays.

Arteta and Arsenal now have to hold the nerve we have all questioned.

But it does seem somewhat contradictory to slate Arsenal for their style when they fall short, then carp when they reach March in firm contention for all four major prizes.

This is what Arteta means when he talks about the “noise” surrounding title races, especially if your club has not won one since 2003/04.

And is the criticism of Arsenal‘s systematic style actually fair?

Arsenal have scored more goals (58) and conceded fewest (22) in the Premier League. Their goal difference of +36 is the highest.

Predictably, Arsenal are way ahead on goals scored from set pieces, including penalties, with 21 compared to Manchester United‘s 15 in second.

They have scored 27.6% of their goals this season from corners, with 16. Spurs are top of that particular table have scored 13 of their 38 goals from corners – a total of 34.2%.

The Gunners have had more touches in the opposition box (981) than any other team. Liverpool are second with 939. They are second with Brentford, as measured by OPTA statistics, on creating big chances. They have 87 compared to City’s 89.

This points to efficiency and success – so far – this season, even though Arteta himself accepts things must be better than the panic-stricken conclusion to the Chelsea win.

He said in the immediate aftermath: “It is certainly something we will discuss as we have to improve it and do better.

“I’m trying to stay calm, but we weren’t getting the control we wanted, especially against ten men.

“You see with every team that is winning games that everyone is suffering and the margins are so small. But it’s good.”

City have suffered similarly stressful conclusions to their two most recent league wins against Newcastle United and Leeds United, but is this not what champions – or those wishing to be champions – do?

Are Arsenal also paying the price for the elite level football served up by Pep Guardiola’s City as they won six titles under the Catalan, and their closest rivals Liverpool under Jurgen Klopp, who won one before his successor Arne Slot repeated the feat in his first season?

Guardiola’s style has become the purists’ template, while Klopp’s explosive “heavy metal football” provided a thrilling counterpoint.

Arteta has made Arsenal more pragmatic in the attempt to finally bring that elusive crown to Emirates Stadium.

There is more than one way to win a Premier League title – and if Arteta’s earthy approach ends that 22-year wait, there will not be one person of an Arsenal persuasion who will care what the critics say.