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They’re no longer Loser Owls, as Unrivaled’s last winless team claimed their first victory of the season on Monday.
Was the win a temporary upswing for Lunar Owls, or have they begun to discover a sustainable, winning formula?
As in all of Lunar Owls’ games, the club’s production was powered by the tandem of Marina Mabrey and Aaliyah Edwards. As Beckett Harrison recently wrote, the two Owls’ games are suited for the fullcourt 3×3 setting of Unrivaled, evidenced by them posting stats they’ve never sniffed in the WNBA.
Still, it took five games for their impressive numbers to translate into a win.
In their victory over Vinyl, Lunar Owls supplemented the expected output from Mabrey and Edwards with little wins on the margins that then resulted in their first big win.
Rebecca Allen, Owls’ third starter, had her best Unrivaled game, not only hitting two 3s, but also swiping two steals and swatting two shots. Allen’s efforts helped Owls put together their best defensive playmaking game of the season, totaling five steals and five blocks as a team. More time for Skylar Diggins also gave Lunar Owls another reliable ball handler, thus helping them avoid the turnovers that sunk them in previous losses.
As Lunar Owls remain at a talent deficit compared to other clubs, continuing to nail those little things is not negotiable if they want to earn another win sooner than later.
Owls also are dependent on Mabrey’s efficiency outweighing her antics. That worked out in their favor on Monday night, but as she is a high-volume chucker prone to crashing out, Mabrey is high-risk, high-reward offensive star, suggesting ups, downs and inconsistency could be a season-long feature of Lunar Owls.
They open Saturday night’s Unrivaled action against Breeze, when Paige Bueckers and company will be looking to build off their win over Mist on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET, truTV).
Breeze, primarily, snapped their skid because of Bueckers’ brilliance, but they also benefitted from a season-best showing from Cameron Brink. She scored 18 points and secured six rebounds, with Breeze outpacing Mist by a team-best 25 points in her minutes. Kate Martin also had her best game of the season. Although she scratched just two points and did not make a shot from the field, she grabbed a season-high nine rebounds, with Breeze outscoring Mist by 17 points in her season-high 12 minutes.
If Breeze plays to their potential around Paige, it’s hard to see even a dialed-in and attention-to-detail effort from Lunar Owls beating them.
Does Hive have a hope against Laces?
Hive occupies the ignominious position in Josh Felton’s first Unrivaled power rankings of the 2026 season.
And yet, their lone win came over second-ranked Rose. Is it possible they add a victory over top-dog Laces to it?
How do you rank Unrivaled’s 8 clubs?
With Week 3 of Unrivaled is underway, how do you assess the league’s eight clubs? Is Hive being slept on? Do you agree that Laces are the best of the best? Share your early-season Unrivaled power rankings on The Feed.
Although that seems almost impossible, Unrivaled is unpredictable. Remember, eventual-champion Rose were No. 5 in Josh’s first power rankings almost exactly one year ago.
Kelsey Mitchell is capable of going on a Chelsea Gray-esque scoring streak, Sonia Citron might start making almost all of her 3s, Ezi Magbegor could consistently play with aggression on both ends of the floor, Saniya Rivers can terrorize opponents with her defensive playmaking, Monique Billings will keep outhustling everyone and Natisha Hiedeman has the potential to become the league’s best microwave scorer.
The ingredients are there for Hive to start buzzing.
However, it’s more likely that Laces, with a roster that Josh described as “an amazing 3×3 fit with championship upside written all over it,” ties Hive in knots and cruises to a league-best fifth win.
