NEW YORK — Chelsea Gray added another individual honor to her collection Monday, accepting the Unrivaled League MVP award before the semifinal doubleheader at Barclays Center. The Las Vegas Aces guard, playing for Rose BC in the 3-on-3 league, averaged 24.2 points, 5.6 rebounds and 6.1 assists over 14 games.
Gray, 33, broke her own league single-season assists record with 85 helpers. She recorded nine games with 20 or more points, 10 games with five or more assists, and tied the league single-game 3-pointers record with 10. She also won Unrivaled’s 1-on-1 tournament last month.
“I want to say thank you to everyone who voted,” Gray said. “I love this game. Want to be great every night, and that’s always my goal. Women’s basketball is where it’s at, shows by all you guys coming out and watching us compete every single night.”
On the court, former Aces star Kelsey Plum — now with the Los Angeles Sparks — scored 31 points to lead top-seeded Phantom BC to an 83-75 win over Vinyl. Dearica Hamby, another ex-Ace now with the Sparks, led Vinyl with 30 points. Phantom advanced to Wednesday’s championship game.
In the other semifinal, Arike Ogunbowale celebrated her 29th birthday by hitting a decisive 3-pointer to lift second-seeded Mist to a 73-69 victory over Breeze. The championship will be played Wednesday at Unrivaled’s home arena in Miami. The winning team’s six players split a $600,000 prize pool.
Unrivaled moved the semifinals to New York after a successful weekend in Philadelphia in late January that drew more than 21,490 fans. Monday’s sellout crowd of 18,261 included Carmelo Anthony, Sue Bird, Ashton Kutcher, Jason Sudeikis, and hockey gold medalist Hilary Knight.
