Age was nothing but a number for Paige Bueckers and her Breeze squad on the first day of the 2026 Unrivaled season.
The former UConn women’s basketball star is captaining the youngest team in the 3-on-3 league this year, which features four first-time Unrivaled players with an average age of just 24 years old. But that didn’t stop Bueckers from powering Breeze to a 69-62 victory over Phantom on Monday, logging 24 points plus five rebounds, a team-high six assists and two blocks.
“The other team is talking trash, talking to the refs like, ‘These are kids man, they don’t need these calls.’ I’m like, kids? Don’t disrespect,” Bueckers said with a grin during her postgame interview on TNT. “When the ball goes up, be able to hoop. There’s no age discrimination. So that’s just how we feel, and I think the youth, we can use that to our advantage … We just have hoopers that just want to win and compete and play with each other, and we’re very unselfish. We already have great chemistry.”
Bueckers got into her bag early in her Unrivaled debut, scoring the first points of the game for Breeze on one of her signature mid-range jump shots. She added a buzzer-beater 3-pointer to her highlight reel at halftime, side-stepping Phantom forward Kiki Iriafen to send her team into the locker room with the lead.
Bueckers said she felt the challenge of adjusting to the high-speed 3-on-3 format, but she still played with her hallmark efficiency, shooting 7-for-15 from the field and going 5-for-5 from the free throw line without giving up a single turnover.
“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 said. “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.”
Bueckers wasn’t the only former Husky shining on the opening day of Unrivaled’s second season, not even in her own game. Veteran guard Tiffany Hayes, who wasn’t initially planning to play in the league this year, signed on to play for Phantom in mid-December after Satou Sabally was ruled out indefinitely with lingering symptoms from a concussion. Hayes was the team’s star on Monday with 20 points, two steals and two blocks in just 16 minutes. She shot 8-for-14 from the field with a pair of made 3-pointers.
“I’m always going to do my thing regardless. Can’t nobody stay in front of me,” Hayes said postgame. “So it was definitely fun to go back and forth with with the young Breeze.”
Four of the five UConn alumni competing in Unrivaled finished among the top 10 scorers of opening day. Aaliyah Edwards posted a dominant double-double for Lunar Owls despite the team’s loss to reigning champion Rose, finishing with 23 points and 12 rebounds. She and Connecticut Sun teammate Marina Mabrey combined for 44 of Lunar Owls’ 60 points in the game, and Mabrey dished nine assists including six to Edwards.
Former UConn standout Aaliyah Edwards led the Lunar Owls with a double-double on Unrivaled’s opening day Jan. 5, 2026 in Miami.
Edwards’ standout performance was cut short by a scary fall in the fourth quarter, and Lunar Owls coach DJ Sackmann said there was no update on her status immediately after the game. Edwards was knocked face first into the stanchion of the basket by a block attempt from Rose center Shakira Austin, and she was down on the court for several minutes before walking off the floor of her own power.
For Rose, former UConn standout Azura Stevens picked up right where she left off on last season’s Unrivaled championship run. The 6-foot-6 forward put up 19 points and a team-high 10 rebounds, hitting a pair of 3-pointers to help lead Rose in its 80-60 victory.
Huskies legend Breanna Stewart, who co-founded Unrivaled with former UConn teammate Napheesa Collier, also brought home a win on Monday with Mist. She put up 12 points, five rebounds and a block in the team’s 72-56 victory over Hive.
Collier was expected to play for Lunar Owls alongside Edwards, but the Huskies great announced Jan. 1 that she will miss Unrivaled to undergo surgery on both ankles for injuries that occurred during the WNBA season. Though she won’t be on the court, Collier will still be on site in Miami to remain connected to the league and its players while going through her rehab process. The WNBA is also in the midst of a contentious collective bargaining agreement negotiation, and Collier is using her experience as an Unrivaled co-founder to help lead that charge as a vice president of the players association.
“You’ve heard a lot of chatter about, what we’re asking for is not sustainable for the business,” Collier said of the negations during Monday’s broadcast. “Being on this side with Unrivaled, I know what it takes to run a sustainable business. I think if they can’t find a model to make that happen, they need to put people in place who can, because we’ve proven that it is possible … We’re not going to back down, and we can’t take less. The sport has just grown too much.”
