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The second day of Unrivaled action gave us a dominant performance from Laces, beating Phantom 86-48, followed by Lunar Owls defeating Rose 79-70 to remain unbeaten.
The Laces came out blazing against Phantom. All five players scored in double figures, and Kayla McBride scored a game-high 28 points. With Phantom featuring star power like Satou Sabally, Sabrina Ionescu and Brittney Griner, a 38-point blowout loss was a shock.
Phantom clearly had an awful night, but two factors really set them up for failure: their inability to rebound or shoot 3s. From beyond the arc, Phantom went 9-for-25, and they were outrebounded 42-26. Not making your shots and failing to grab rebounds usually leads to a bad result.
It’s the smallest of sample sizes, but Laces just looked more comfortable. Stefanie Dolson dominated inside and outside, scoring 14 points on 5-for-7 shooting, and Alyssa Thomas added 18 points on 7-for-8 shooting.
Both teams play again on Monday, with Phantom looking to redeem themselves versus Vinyl and Laces trying to add another victory to their record versus Mist.
Lunar Owls win again
It’s Lunar Owls’ league, and everyone else just plays in it.
They dominated during the first two quarters, and while Rose made a push during the closing minutes of the third quarter, the Owls stayed in control and never trailed in the second half.
Napheesa Collier spectacular in this one, scoring 31 points and grabbing six boards. Allisha Gray had a productive game, scoring 21 points and grabbing a game-high nine rebounds. Skylar Diggins-Smith had a quiet game with nine points, but given that she secured the team’s first win with an epic 3-pointer, I think her team will be okay with a quiet game on Saturday. And she still sunk the free throw that gave the Owls the winning score.
For Rose, Angel Reese is the center of attention. She did a much better job of shooting efficiently than in her Unrivaled debut. Reese shot 50 percent from the field and scored 12 points. Azurá Stevens had a great game, going 7-for-8 from the field and scoring a team-high 17 points.
Rose simply didn’t have enough firepower, and their slow start made it too difficult of a task to rally back in a fourth quarter, when Lunar Owls just had to score 11 points to win compared to Rose’s 16 needed for victory.
Key takeaways
Early on, Lunar Owls have looked like the best team in the league; Laces appear poised and under control, but Rose and Phantom have work to do.
Rose may have lost both of their games, but they were in contention in both and appeared to look better on Saturday compared to Friday. For Phantom, this is tape you try to learn from but also quickly throw away. They looked disorganized, confused and overwhelmed. Given the pedigree of their players, this will likely be an anomaly and not a sign of a bad season to come. Still, everyone will be watching their next game to see if they are truly this bad, so expect some pressure in their second game as they try to prove this performance was a fluke.
