The inaugural season of the Upshot League commenced in May with four southern teams vying for the same goal – the first-ever Upshot League championship.
Those four teams were the Savannah Steel, Charlotte Crown, Jacksonville Waves and Greensboro Groove.
This season would come down to the Crown and the Waves. The site was the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville where Upshot is headquartered. The date was August 29.
Through three quarters, it appeared that the Waves would defend its home court and dispatch the Crown. Charlotte would embark on a furious rally to outscore Jacksonville by a margin of 32-19 and bested the Waves by a final tally of 81-76 for the 2026 Upshot League championship.
A Monday celebration has already been announced at the BoPlex – located just south and east of Uptown Charlotte – in honor of the Crown’s huge win. That will likely be a well-attended gathering considering how all forms of basketball is such an integral part of North Carolina culture.
The key catalyst behind the victory was Deja Kelly who has been such an important element to the winning puzzle for Charlotte all season long. Kelly led all Crown bucket-getters with 29 points. She also concluded her evening in Duval with six rebounds, three assists and two steals. Championship game MVP honors were also in store for Kelly.
Kelly averaged 18.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, four assists and 1.2 steals per contest throughout the season.
Another key element to the championship season for the Crown was Schaquilla Nunn. She was one of the starters for the Crown and earned Defensive Player of the Year honors. In the championship contest against Jacksonville, Nunn hauled in five rebounds and collected a steal.
Deans means business. Championship teams like the Crown usually have production off the bench. Charlotte got a great deal of it in the form of KK Deans who finished Saturday’s matchup with 14 points and six assists. Deans was also true on all five of her free throw attempts and also drained three of her seven tries from 3-point range.
Speaking of 3-point specialists, fans of the WNBA (as well as Louisville) likely remember the name AD Durr. They also earned a starting spot for this game in Charlotte’s first five. Durr concluded their performance with 11 points and three rebounds and also connected on three of their seven 3-point attempts.
Reigan Richardson is a fan favorite in North Carolina basketball circles from her days at Duke. Richardson, another one of the Charlotte starters, contributed 11 points to the Crown’s cause. Four rebounds were also part of Richardson’s evening.
That solid bench for Charlotte also included a name familiar to South Carolina fans in LeLe Grissett who led the Crown in rebounding with seven boards.
As for Jacksonville, Ariel Hearn has proudly represented Duval all season and Saturday night’s championship matchup was no exception. Hearn led the Waves with 15 points, four rebounds and two assists. Hearn was one of two 15-point scorers for Jacksonville.
The other was Rennia Davis who logged 33 minutes of court time for the Waves. Davis’ performance also included being two boards shy of a double-double with eight.
The entire starting five for Jacksonville all finished with double-digit point performances. That included Jasmine Walker who contributed 11 points to the Waves’ cause. Walker would also haul in five rebounds. Jacksonville as a team connected on five of its 17 attempts from behind the arc. Three of those were courtesy of Walker.
Shyanne Sellers and Lindsey Pulliam would each place 10 points on the scoreboard for Jacksonville. Sellers was on triple-double watch as she not only grabbed eight rebounds but also dished out seven assists in addition to connecting on four of her six free throw attempts. Pulliam’s five boards helped Jacksonville win the rebounding battle by a margin of 45-41 over Charlotte.
The leader on the glass for the game would be Adut Bulgak who crashed the boards for 11 – including four offensive rebounds.
Kelly, Nunn, Hearn, Davis and Savannah’s Lasha Petree also made the inaugural All-Upshot team.
The inaugural season of Upshot was epic and had an ending that was anything but anticlimactic. In similar fashion to how Unrivaled’s second season was bigger than its first with eight teams as opposed to six, the Upshot League’s 2027 campaign will add teams in Nashville and Baltimore to the Charlotte, Jacksonville, Savannah and Greensboro assemblings.
