The Huskies have five active players on rosters in the Florida-based league, which opened its second season on Monday.
Call it a successful opening night for the UConn alums playing in the Unrivaled women’s basketball league.
Six former Huskies basketball players – including some of the most decorated players in program history – are on Unrivaled rosters for the new season, which began Monday night in Miami. Five are available to take the court.
No UConn alum had a more spectacular night than Paige Bueckers, playing in her first game in the league. The 2025 national champion with the Huskies, Bueckers posted 24 points, five rebounds, six assists and no turnovers playing for the Breeze.
The Breeze defeated the Phantom 69-62.
Unrivaled, created by former UConn and current WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, is 3-on-3 basketball instead of traditional 5-on-5.
Remember, Bueckers was playing for UConn this time last season. And this style is very different from the traditional game she’s accustomed to.
“This is so fast-paced, and there’s never a possession where you’re not in any of the action on both ends of the floor,” Bueckers told the TNT crew in a postgame interview.
“So the conditioning is an aspect I think that we’re all getting used to. It was our first time really playing — our scrimmages were five-minute quarters, and this was extended to seven — so (we’re) feeling that out, getting the lungs under us and getting used to playing this style of basketball.”
On the other side was Tiffany Hayes, one of four Unrivaled players to have won a title with UConn. Hayes led the Phantom with a team-high 20 points and also had three rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
Stewart, winner of four consecutive championships with the Huskies, scored 12 points as her Mist bested the Hive 72-56. The two-time WNBA Most Valuable Player also contributed five rebounds. Unrivaled has interesting end-of-game rules, and 72 points was the target for the Mist to score to win. Stewart hit the game-winning shot.
And in the 80-62 victory by the defending league champion Rose over the Lunar Owls, two ex-UConn standouts played key roles.
For the Rose, Azura Stevens put up a double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds. Stevens spent her final college season with the Huskies in 2017-18 after transferring from Duke. She earned All-American Athletic Conference honors after averaging 14.7 points and 7.4 rebounds in 37 games (eight starts).
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Collier will not play for her Unrivaled team, Lunar Owls, this season as she recovers from surgery on both ankles. But she has left the team in the good hands of another former Huskies player.
Aaliyah Edwards scored 23 points and pulled down 12 rebounds in just 18.4 minutes in the loss.
With the Huskies from 2020-24, Edwards averaged 17.6 points and 9.2 rebounds as a senior. She was a third-team All-American selection and named first-team All-Big East.
It’s a sure thing that the Unrivaled season will have a UConn flair.
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