Saturday night at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, somebody becomes the first champion in UPSHOT League history. Your Charlotte Crown have a say in it. Tipoff is 7 o'clock: Charlotte, 23-11 and winners of nine of their last ten, against the Jacksonville Waves, who finished first in the league at 25-9.
Some context for the folks just tuning in. The UPSHOT League is a professional women's basketball league playing its very first season, four teams strong: Charlotte, Jacksonville, Greensboro, and Savannah. The championship is a single game, winner take all. And this league is already producing WNBA talent: Charlotte's own Michelle Onyiah became the first UPSHOT player signed to a WNBA contract when the Indiana Fever came calling in July. First season. First champion. Charlotte is one of the two teams still standing.
The Crown arrive hot. They closed the regular season Sunday at Bojangles Coliseum with an 89-84 win over Greensboro, and the story of that one was KK Deans: 30 points on 10-of-12 shooting, 7 of 9 from three, OFF THE BENCH. Charlotte's reserves outscored Greensboro's 40-17. Deja Kelly added 23 and hit the free throw that sealed it. That's four straight wins to close the year, with the championship berth already clinched back on August 5.
And they know Jacksonville. The two teams met three times in August alone, and the three games came out three different ways. Charlotte hung 105 on the Waves on August 2, the most points any team has scored in a regulation game in this league's short life. Eleven days later Jacksonville won 78-76 at Bojangles Coliseum, Deans' would-be winner rimming out at the buzzer. Two nights after that, Charlotte took the final meeting 99-94 in overtime, Deja Kelly with 22 and Schaquilla Nunn's and-one putting it away. A 32-point blowout, a two-point heartbreaker, an overtime thriller. Pick a script.
The season numbers say these teams belong on the same floor. Charlotte finished second at 23-11, 12-5 at home and 11-6 on the road, scoring 84.9 a game and allowing 79.8. Jacksonville took the top seed by two games.
Can't make the trip to Florida? The club has you covered at home. The Crown announced Tuesday a championship watch party in the East Charlotte Room at the Bojangles Entertainment Complex: doors at 6:30, tipoff at 7, free and open to the public, with a cash bar, light appetizers, a merch stand, and raffles. The club asks fans to RSVP here.
Saturday, 7 o'clock, in Jacksonville. Forty minutes for the first championship this league will ever award. Pull up a chair. There's one waiting in the East Charlotte Room.