Unrivaled, Up Next: Napheesa Collier’s Lunar Owls suffer first season loss

The loss came in a game against Rose BC, where Chelsea Gray racked up 26 points, 6 rebounds and 5 assists. The team won 72-63 over Lunar Owls, and after the game, Owls’ Allisha Gray said the loss was due to not getting into a shooting rhythm. “We were making shots a little out of rhythm,” Gray said in a postgame press conference. “That’s the main thing. It’s a game of runs, and the team that’s really in rhythm and making shots is typically going to come out on top.”

Gray went on to talk about the team’s shooting percentage — just over 21% in comparison to the Rose’s 33.3% — as another factor to the loss. Coach DJ Sackmann was not too concerned about the loss, knowing his team would bounce back. “We just gotta start the game out on a better note than we did tonight,” Sackmann said to the media post game. “We started out a little flat, so we’re not going to internalize this loss. Just gotta move on to the next one.”

The Lunar Owls couldn’t take too much time to dwell over the loss though, as they had a match-up against against Laces BC the next day. And unlike on Friday night, on Saturday, the Owls came out with energy to start the game. It also worked in their favor that Laces only had four available players, due to their lengthy injury list that includes Tiffany Hayes, Kate Martin, Alyssa Thomas, Jackie Young and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton. It was Skylar Diggins-Smith with 25 points, and Gray with 26 points, who led the Lunar Owls to this win. However, it was Courtney Williams who shot the game winner.

While the victory was definitely exciting, it was Diggins-Smith’s comments after the game on the broadcast that really got the crowd going. She said that her Lunar Owls were “carrying this league,” and the members of the crowd were vocal in their mixed responses, with some cheering, some groaning, and some even booing in response to the statement.

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Williams, Diggins-Smith’s teammate, backed her up after the game. “We lose one game and it’s like everyone is in shambles,” she said to reporters. “It’s like you win the Super Bowl because you beat the Lunar Owls.”

Yet, Williams made sure to back up her opinion with some facts. “We’ve been doing this since day one,” she said after the game. “No, I’m serious, check the stats, we’ve literally been showing up every single day. I don’t understand the mixed reaction from the crowd because the stats don’t lie. We were 8-0 before yesterday, and now we’re 9-1. How are we not carrying this league?”

With their ninth win, the Lunar Owls clinched the first playoff spot in Unrivaled history. They also still remain first in the league.

And since they played both Friday and Saturday, the Lunar Owls had the day off on Monday, a day that saw wins from both Rose and Mist BCs. Despite the short season, there are enough games that there has been considerable movement in the Unrivaled standings. Lunar Owls have led the race, while Laces’ early success has been slowed by the injuries they’ve suffered. Rose has, in turn, risen to the occasion, and now sit second in the standings.

Angel Reese of Rose BC has been showing off her expanded set of skills going into her second year of professional basketball. She scored 23 points and earned 13 rebounds against Phantom on Monday, and racked up 22 points and 21 rebounds in her team’s win over Lunar Owls on Friday.

“She just works, she’s relentless,” Reese’s coach Nola Henry said of her recent performances. “I’d say it’s the mentality that she backs up by her effort. She refuses to be denied, she refuses to be stopped. If there’s any weakness, she’ll focus in on that.”

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Reese’s teammates also have high praise for the young star, with Lexie Hull especially praising her competitiveness. “As a teammate, it’s awesome,” Hull said to the media. “It’s great to have on your side.”

Even her competitors are praising Reese, as Natasha Cloud of Phantom BC did after Rose BC beat them Monday. Cloud said to reporters that Reese “set the tone” for her team, and even called on viewers to “give her her flowers as much as you shit on her, too.”

The Unrivaled season is the perfect environment for the young Chicago Sky star to get in some reps before her second WNBA season. Reese played a strong first season and even earned some Rookie of the Year traction, but ultimately, her season ended early due to a wrist injury. That injury hasn’t seemed to follow her into 2025, and the Sky have retooled their roster in an effort to start building around Reese and her teammate Kamilla Cardoso.

Many of the players have mentioned how much they appreciate the the pressure-free environment at Unrivaled, and the cohesion between the facilities in Miami and their WNBA teams is evident. WNBA staff send players workout routines, come to scout games, and seem to be in frequent contact with their athletes and each other. Even the WNBA’s commissioner Cathy Engelbert was in attendance over the weekend.

Cloud was asked by the media what she wants Engelbert and the WNBA to take away from Unrivaled, and she did not hold back. “We want our money and we want it now,” she said assertively. “In my ten years in the W, we’ve grown so much, but still have room to grow.” She added that the WNBA needs to “just prioritize the players.”

The money has been a huge conversation around Unrivaled, as the average player salary for less than three months at Unrivaled is over $200,000 — nearly as much as the current WNBA super-max of $249,244. On top of that, players made even more money by participating in the 1-on-1 tournament. Napheesa Collier took home an additional $200,000, while Aaliyah Edwards took $50,000 as runner-up, and Arike Ogunbowale and Azura Stevens each got $25,000 for making the semi-finals. Additionally, Collier’s Lunar Owls teammates each earned $10,000 because she won. It was also announced after the tournament that Collier decided to split half of her winnings with her athletic and coaching staff at Unrivaled.

With the WNBA preparing to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement with the players before the 2026 season, Unrivaled is going to make a huge impact on player leverage.

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