JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The Jacksonville Waves battled to the very finish but came up just short in its quest for a championship.
Jacksonville, the league’s top team all season long, couldn’t get past the Charlotte Crown in an 81-76 thriller in the inaugural Upshot League championship game on Saturday night at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.
In front of an audience that included NBA hall of famer Shaquille O’Neal and women’s basketball legends Tamika Catchings and Ann Meyers Drysdale, the league’s two best teams took things down to the very end.
Jacksonville led by as many as 14 points, but Charlotte caught back up early in the fourth. Lele Grissett had a driving bucket with just over six minutes to play to give Charlotte its first lead of the second half at 62-61.
The Crown bumped that lead to as many as six on a Deja Kelly 3-pointer with 1:33 to go. The Waves didn’t go quietly. Down 77-71, Jacksonville clawed back. Adut Bulgak had a putback for a bucket and Jasmine Walker followed with a steal and then a 3 to slice the deficit to 77-76. Charlotte knocked down a couple of free throws before Ariel Hearn had an open look for a 3 to tie. But it clanged off the back of the rim and the Crown closed things out on free throws to ice it. Kelly, the Upshot League’s leading scorer, led all players with 29 points in the win.
The Waves (25-10) and Crown had split their 10 games this season.
The Upshot League has to consider its first season a success. Founded by local resident and former WNBA president Donna Orender behind the backing of Zawyer Sports, Upshot played its inaugural year with four teams (Greensboro and Savannah along with Jacksonville and Savannah. There are plans to expand to Nashville and Baltimore next year and go to 10 or 12 teams in 2028.
The Waves provided the blueprint on how to build a squad. Head coach Jessica Bogia’s team had legitimate talent right from the beginning and didn’t change a thing.
Ariel Hearn (University of Memphis), Shyanne Sellers (Maryland) and Rennia Davis (Ribault High/University of Tennessee) not only had high level college success, but went to the WNBA, too. Davis was a first-round pick coming out of Tennessee. Hearn was named the Upshot League’s MVP after averaging 15.1 ppg. Even more impressive is that Bogia’s team stayed relatively healthy and had chemistry better than any other of the league’s three teams. Jacksonville didn’t make a single roster transaction in its 35 games.
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