Just one game in, it’s already been a tough second season for the Lunar Owls. First, they lost Napheesa Collier, who has to undergo surgery on both ankles and miss four to six months. Then, they were demolished by Chelsea Gray and Rose BC.
Gray scored 35 points to lead the Rose to an 80-60 win over the Lunar Olws. The one bright spot for the Lunar Owls was Aaliyah Edwards, who scored an efficient 23 points and grabbed 12 rebounds against a strong Rose big rotation featuring Azura Stevens and Shakira Austin. Marina Mabrey also scored over 20 points, but she went 8-25 from the field and 1-12 from three.
Edwards was the Lunar Owls’ only consistent source of offense, putting on a real scoring masterclass. And yet, the Lunar Owls lost by 20 points. The game may have looked different if Skylar Diggins had played, but losing by that much despite a great game from your youngest player hints at a serious issue—the Lunar Owls don’t look like a contender this season and will struggle even more offoffensively if Edwards has to miss any time due to a nasty fall she took late in the third quarter.
The Lunar Owls may struggle this season
While one game isn’t enough to completely doom the Lunar Owls yet, it seems fair to assume that they won’t be a serious contender this season, even if Skylar Diggins returns soon.
Bringing in Temi Fagbenle to replace Napheesa Collier just isn’t enough to make up for the absence of last season’s MVP. Fagbenle is a solid starting-level center, but she isn’t the same kind of versatile MVP-level centerpiece Collier is. That puts a lot of pressure on Edwards, Mabrey, and Diggins to deliver—especially if Fagbenle, Rachel Banham, and Rebecca Allen continue to produce little. Fagbenle took only one shot in over nine minutes of playing time, and the other one combined for four made field goals.
If the Lunar Owls want to find any kind of success this season, they will need other players to score efficiently around Aaliyah Edwards. Mabrey and Diggins are both capable of providing that. Still, with all the talent on the other teams and the loss of their most important player, the Lunar Owls aren’t well set up for a competitive season.
To make matters worse, Allisha Gray, one of the players the Lunar Owls didn’t protect in the draft, had a great first game for Mist BC. She scored 21 points and fueled a high-scoring offense that makes the Mist look like a serious contender to start the season.
The Lunar Owls’ next game will be against the Phantom on Saturday.