JACKSONVILLE – The Upshot League sure knows how to throw a party.
A packed VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena became the center of the women’s basketball universe as Charlotte edged Jacksonville, 81-76, in the inaugural Upshot League championship game. Victory wasn’t secured until Charlotte survived two potential game-tying 3-point attempts with under 30 seconds remaining.
With music thumping throughout, the building vibrated with energy as every big play triggered an immediate roar from the crowd. The final game of a memorable season had party vibes that made a spring break trip look like a study hall by comparison. DMX’s “Party Up” could’ve served as the unofficial anthem as fans lost their minds, acted a fool and happily lost their cool.
Some fans wore glittered wigs and sequined blazers. Others hoisted glow sticks and waved turquoise pom-poms. They all participated in the time-honored tradition of doing the wave and swag surfing from side to side.
Apparently, championship-game fashion wasn’t limited to the humans. A relaxed Yorkshire Terrier sitting in an oversized arena seat and calmly surveying the arena was decked out in a turquoise bucket hat decorated with Waves-themed patches, a matching jersey outfit, and even tiny turquoise-and-gray sneakers.
A big-time feel lingered in the air from the moment players began arriving around 4:45 p.m., transforming the entrance into their own runway as they showcased their dope tunnel fits. Some stepped onto the blue carpet in high heels and sandals, while others kept it casual in shorts and sneakers. Players stopped for individual photos before the entire Crown team gathered for a group shot, another sign that this wasn’t just another game.
The aura only intensified closer to tipoff. Jacksonville players raced onto the court through a tunnel of kids before the national anthem, when a giant American flag held by kids was unfurled across most of the floor. Then came the starting lineups. One by one, each starter emerged through a smoke-filled entrance as flames shot into the air from behind the basket, adding pyrotechnics to a night that already felt larger than basketball.
One fan brought a white sign that read “All I Want For My Birthday is a Waves Win.” While that specific wish didn’t come true, she probably left hoarse, along with lifetime memories of witnessing two heavyweights slugging it out in a two-hour, 35-minute thriller that featured five lead changes and four ties.
With Ann Meyers Drysdale, Cheryl Miller and Tamika Catchings sitting courtside—three generations of women’s basketball royalty—the night carried an unmistakable sense of history even extending beyond the conclusion of a season to cherish. Former WNBA players Muriel Page and Kym Hampton enjoyed the action from their courtside seats.
Also in attendance were Towson head coach Laura Harper, the 2006 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player, and Jacksonville head women’s basketball coach Special Jennings, who led the Dolphins to the NCAA tournament last season.
Charlotte’s Quinzia Fulmore, who also had stops at Memphis and Elon, and Kylie Kornegay-Lucas played for Harper at Towson.
“The environment was definitely lit,” Fulmore said to The IX Basketball. “For this to be a new league, I am so surprised. We have so many supporters. Some of our Charlotte fans that I always see at our home games were here. Even the Jacksonville fans were very respectful and nice, and saying they love watching us play as well. It’s just such a good vibe, especially for this to be the first year for this league. I’m genuinely impressed.”
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It was a night of celebration from beginning to end—an opportunity for the league to savor the success of its first season, honor the players who helped make it memorable and crown its first champion. The league recognized its All-Upshot Team of Ariel Hearn (Jacksonville), Rennia Davis (Jacksonville), Deja Kelly (Charlotte), Schaquilla Nunn (Charlotte), Diamond Johnson (Greensboro), and Lasha Petree (Savannah) to thunderous applause before tipoff.
It handed out its Sixth Woman of the Year to Jacksonville’s Taylor Soule and Defensive Player of the Year honors to Nunn at the end of the first quarter. Hearn was feted with the MVP award at halftime.
And fittingly, the basketball matched the moment.
Kelly Shines Late
Playing in front of NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, who also sat courtside for the entire game, and the mayor of Jacksonville, Donna Deegan, both teams treated the crowd to a show. O’Neal serves as an official partner to the Upshot League through his brand Dunkman, which designs and supplies the official uniforms, shoes, and gear for the league.
Ultimately, the brilliance of Charlotte’s Deja Kelly made the difference as she helped the Crown erase a 14-point second-half deficit. Kelly finished with 29 points and six rebounds to earn the Ann Meyers Drysdale MVP award.
“Ann Meyers Drysdale is a legend, so to have won an award that’s named after her is truly a blessing,” Kelly said to The IX Sports postgame. “It’s an honor. Obviously, I would have loved to win the regular season MVP, and I think I deserved it. But the championship MVP means a little bit more, so we’ll take that. And the fact that we won the ‘chip means a lot more. I’m truly blessed. It’s truly an honor, a great award. There’s so much meaning behind it, and to be the first, that’s a blessing in itself.
“So, it’s a great award, but I couldn’t have done it without my team. They have helped me throughout this whole season. We got a lot of MVPs on our team who could have been up for that award too. They have been so supportive and a great value to what I was able to do on the court.”
Also playing a significant role in Kelly’s development was her head coach Trisha Stafford-Odom. She’s gotten to know a different version of Kelly beyond what other people might assume about her.
“What I see is actually an introvert for the most part, pretty quiet, pretty shy, and has the weight of the world on her by people’s expectations and mainly people that don’t know her,” Odom said. “There are assumptions that fly all over the place about what she may be like because she’s such an exceptional scorer, exceptional basketball player. She’s such a beautiful young lady, but what I’ve learned is that she’s a beautiful spirit who allowed me to coach her to do something different and expand her game.”
That spirit, Odom says, is what separates Kelly in a league full of talent.
“What I would love people to know about Deja Kelly is that she’s an individual willing to sacrifice,” Odom said. “She’s very unselfish, and her goal is about winning. But she’s a wonderful soul. She’s grateful for her opportunities, and she’s a bucket.”
It’s why the Crown’s celebration carried so many layers. It overcame a 1-6 start to the season to hoist the trophy. As the final seconds ticked away, Crown players sprinted off the bench and into each other’s arms. Kelly wore a tiara during the celebration—a fitting accessory for someone who had helped lead the Crown to the throne.
One of the most poignant moments of the evening occurred when Stafford-Odom received wisdom from O’Neal at halftime with Charlotte down, 36-30. He stopped her as she was walking to the locker room and whispered in her ear, and Stafford-Odom nodded as she absorbed his message.
“He said to me, remember who you are,” Stafford-Odom said. “He said the troops will follow their leader. He told me I didn’t complain about anything as a player, don’t complain now and get your players to play.”
They did.
The Crown scored 51 points over the final 18 minutes after Jacksonville opened the third quarter with eight consecutive points to swell its advantage to 44-30 with 8 minutes, 5 seconds remaining. From there, the Crown sprinted to the finish by remaining poised and patient while relying on its blue-ribbon defense and ultimately making clutch shots down the stretch. KK Deans added 14 points while AD and Reigan Richardson scored 11 points each. Kornegay-Lucas was huge down the stretch with nine points.
Wearing black championship hats and t-shirts, the euphoric hugs were tight. The smiles were wider than the St. Johns River. The relief was palpable. They posed for selfies, FaceTimed family members, signed autographs, danced, and conducted on-court interviews.
Kelly and Soule shared a long postgame embrace as a sign of respect and sportsmanship.
Once inside their spacious locker room, which quickly felt like a sauna, the celebration shifted into another gear. Plastic had been taped neatly over the lockers and spread across the floor in anticipation of what was coming. Players plucked champagne bottles from blue tubs, popped corks, and sprayed each other, creating a mini-Niagara that soaked the plastic. Soon, champagne dripped from the ceiling, forming small puddles on the plastic covering the carpet.
Then came the confetti cans.
Colorful strips fluttered through the humid room before settling everywhere—stuck to the wet plastic, gathered along the lockers and scattered beneath the players’ feet. The confetti littered the floor like breadcrumbs, colorful receipts for everything the Crown had endured, including a 4-for-22 shooting effort in the second quarter, to earn this moment.
In a funny locker room scene, Kelly, who scored 10 points in the final four minutes and bent the game to her will, struggled to pop the cork off her champagne bottle, prompting teasing from Stafford-Odom and lots of help from her teammates. They shook the bottle and tried twisting the top. Nothing. Another player used her shirt to try and get the moisture off to make it easier. Nothing.
Finally, after about 90 seconds, Kelly got the bottle to pop. She jumped excitedly, screamed, and sprayed it wildly. It was the only thing she had difficulty with this past season, even while leading the league in scoring and assists.
‘Incredibly validating‘
If the Upshot League’s inaugural season was its opening act, Saturday night felt like the grand finale of a Broadway show—a dramatic, energetic and fitting conclusion to a first year that left everyone eager for an encore. And that second act will be bigger, with Baltimore and Nashville joining Greensboro, Savannah, Jacksonville and Charlotte to give the league six franchises next season.
“It’s actually really hard to put into words,” Upshot League commissioner Donna Orender said during halftime to The IX Sports when asked what this day meant to her. “I’d love to be able to pour out this most eloquent quote. It’s actually overwhelming in a way, right? You work hard for something. You believe in it. It comes together piece by piece, and then all of a sudden, it’s there. It’s a tremendous amount of hard work by so many people. It’s incredibly validating, and then it’s also very gratifying. … We’re laying down a foundation that is going to be built upon, and that honestly, that’s heavy stuff.”
Orender made sure the championship spotlight extended beyond the players on the court. During the game, Greensboro and Savannah players tossed t-shirts and balls into the crowd. They also led the youth clinic that was held in between the luncheon and game.
The festive day began with the Empower and Surge luncheon, where three panels of women shared their experiences and wisdom with nearly 200 attendees, who enjoyed barbeque brisket, collard greens, baked beans, cornbread, salad, and strawberry shortcake. Recently named Baltimore president Sonia Chase detailed her challenging journey to bring a franchise to Charm City.
Kym Hampton reached further back, tearfully reminiscing about the WNBA’s inaugural season, playing in the league’s first game 30 years ago and scoring the first basket in New York Liberty history. Greensboro head coach Janice Washington said she believed in Upshot’s vision when she left collegiate coaching to join a league that didn’t have signed players at the time. Upshot’s vice president of operations and WNBA champion Taj McWilliams-Franklin also spoke about watching this league come to life.
Current Savannah Steele players Petree and Lauren Taylor brought the conversation back to the present, sharing what it meant to be part of the Upshot League’s first season. Taylor recalled hitting a game-winning basket on her birthday to beat Jacksonville, made even more memorable by her teammates wearing party hats during pregame warmups.
Those are the moments that made this summer special.
The wins mattered. The competition mattered. But so did the joy, relationships, and memories created while building something from the ground up.
When it came time for the game, Miller and Drysdale were ecstatic to see the joy in the stands, the talented players, and the growth of the sport they helped lay the foundation for. Miller was one of the early investors and a member of the leadership/advisory group for the Upshot League, helping shape the vision and future of the professional women’s basketball.
“It’s no longer a talent issue in women’s basketball,” Miller said to The IX Sports. “It’s a spot issue. It’s a roster issue. We need more leagues like this. I just wanted to be a part of something from ground zero to where it is today. I’m super excited about where Upshot is going because it has a bright future.
“This league is so vital in the sense that not everyone gets the opportunity again to play in the WNBA. There are only so many spots, and only so many teams, and some players haven’t evolved their games quite enough yet, so they need that opportunity to strengthen, improve, and expand them. So, this league is a perfect fit.”
Players competed in the championship game in front of their family and friends, which is priceless.
Two Upshot League players, Charlotte’s Michelle Onyiah (Indiana) and Greensboro’s Christyn Williams (Dallas), earned WNBA contracts during the season, tangible evidence that those opportunities can arrive at any moment. The latest is Ndjakalenga Mwenentanda, who has just joined the Los Angeles Sparks’ developmental roster.
Catchings was impressed by the camaraderie and the environment that appreciated and celebrated women’s basketball excellence.
“I commentate the college game,” Catchings said to The IX Sports. “I see a lot of great athletes and a lot of great talent. … It’s a really good league. We’re watching the talent tonight. I’m looking at the players I got a chance to call in the college game, and seeing them still succeed is a blessing.
“We are a big family, and it’s really a tight-knit family. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s the WNBA, the Upshot League, a college game, or players playing overseas. Being able to support one another and being able to come out and see good talent and good games, I think it’s important for our young ones too to see.”
While the result was disappointing for Jacksonville, everybody still won because of this league and opportunity. Behind Hearn and Rennia Davis, who scored 15 points each, the Waves rode the momentum of the home crowd to lead for 32 minutes.
Jasmine Walker added 11 points while Shyanne Sellers and Lindsey Pulliam finished with 10 points each. Sellers has used this league to enhance her confidence and get fully healthy. She finished the season by scoring in double figures in 10 of her last 11 games. Postgame, her father, Brad, a former NBA player, shared a nice embrace with Stafford-Odom as they discussed Sellers’ future.
Sellers offered the perfect perspective when reflecting on her experience of competing in the league this past season.
“It was super fun tonight,” Sellers said postgame to The IX Sports. “The energy in the building was electric. It just shows we need more teams and that everybody is excited about women’s basketball. The growth of the game is exciting, and I couldn’t be more grateful for it. … Playing in this league has been a huge blessing for me because I could be home sitting on my couch and trying to get individual work in.
“There’s nothing like playing the game that can really prepare you for the moment. I am super grateful for everything that has happened. I’ve gotten to connect with a bunch of different people. We come from all walks of life, and we’ve made it work. It’s a blessing.”
Her experience also provided tangible evidence of Upshot’s value. During Sunday’s pregame availability with reporters, Los Angeles Sparks head coach Lynne Roberts confirmed that Sellers will fill a developmental roster spot with the team.
For Meyers Drysdale, it was another example of why a league like Upshot has a place in the expanding women’s basketball landscape. A Naismith Memorial and Women’s Basketball Hall of Famer who broke major barriers by becoming the first female athlete to receive a full athletic scholarship to UCLA, Drysdale appreciates where the game is now and where it’s going.
As the first four-time college All-American, and the first woman to sign an NBA contract, who better than to deliver the final word.
“It shows that the Upshot League is needed,” Meyers Drysdale said. “It’s an elite league that gives opportunities to women. …The fact that it started small, and these cities don’t have pro sports, you can see by the fans that they’re hungry for it. They’re excited about it. You’ve got families here. You’ve got adults from everywhere coming to watch these women play that have a skill level that deserves the attention that it’s getting.
“I’m just proud of these young women that are out here playing because they’ve got the opportunity to fulfill their dream.”
And that was worth celebrating.
