Aliyah Boston, Dana Evans Out for Rest of Unrivaled Season

Phantom BC was dealt a brutal blow heading into their Unrivaled semifinal matchup against Vinyl BC at Barclays Center.

A first-round bye in the Unrivaled playoffs didn’t prevent Phantom BC from enduring some brutal losses.

The league announced on Sunday that Ghost Gang stars Aliyah Boston (right lower extremity) and Dana Evans (left lower extremity) would miss the remainder of the three-on-three tour with injuries. Unrivaled’s second season is set to wrap up this week, beginning with a semifinal couple at Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Monday (7:30 p.m. ET, TNT/TruTV).

Aziaha James and Makayla Timpson are set to suit for Phantom in their places. Phantom, the top seed on the Unrivaled bracket, will face sixth-ranked Vinyl BC in Monday’s first semifinal set.

Aliyah Boston has been ruled out for the remainder of the season due to right lower extremity injury. pic.twitter.com/5sHea38iHP

— Unrivaled Basketball (@Unrivaledwbb) March 1, 2026

Boston was one of the breakout stars of the ongoing Unrivaled tour, having more than tripled her original scoring output from last season (5.9 to 18.9 per game). This winds up being a bittersweet weekend for the 24-year-old center/forward, who was previously bestowed Unrivaled’s Defensive Player of the Year on Saturday and was also named to the league’s Second Team alongside Allisha Gray (Mist) and Brittney Sykes (Laces).

Evans, on the other hand, has officially been shut down after appearing in but one Unrivaled contest this season, Phantom’s Feb. 1 win over the Lunar Owls. The 27-year-old is just about fourth months removed from knee surgery after partaking in the Las Vegas Aces‘ most recent WNBA championship run.

Medical Clarity for Boston Could Come Soon

Unrivaled labeling Boston and Evans’ ailments as season-ending is perhaps a tad exaggerated considering there are but three total games left on the 2026 docket, culminating in Thursday’s championship game in Miami.

Evans was probably always going to face an uphill battle to return to the floor but new concerns now drift toward Boston. Her three-on-three breakout served as one of the most pleasant surprises of the second go-around for the domestic league co-founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart and she’s one of the few notable names still working on an active WNBA contract amidst the league’s ongoing collective bargaining agreement negotiations.

The more pessimistic of observers may be a bit perturbed by what transpired in Phantom’s regular season final on Friday: Boston played an Unrivaled season-low 12 minutes in the 72-68 win over Rose BC, as she did return to action following her exit just before the third quarter’s midway mark.

Silver Lining?

The brevity of Unrivaled’s remnants, however, could serve as a de facto silver lining for fans alarmed about Boston’s status: even with no CBA signed, the busy Boston was in line to keep her sneakers on hardwood by partaking in a FIBA Women’s World Cup qualifying training camp set to be held in the league’s hub city of Miami next weekend (March 7-8). Boston was one of several young American talents that took part in a December camp at Duke University that served as the unofficial first step toward defending the gold medal at the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

So while it could be a tense few days for Boston’s growing fanbase, clarity on her future status could well emerge sooner rather than later. The 12-woman Team USA roster, which also features Unrivaled standouts like Stewart, Paige Bueckers, Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum, and Jackie Young, will then move on to San Juan where five other nations await for round-robin play (beginning with Senegal on March 11).

USA Basketball’s roster for the FIBA World Cup Qualifying tournament next month is set:

Aliyah Boston, Paige Bueckers, Sonia Citron, Caitlin Clark, Kahleah Copper, Chelsea Gray, Dearica Hamby, Rhyne Howard, Kiki Iriafen, Kelsey Plum, Angel Reese & Jackie Young

— Kendra Andrews (@kendra__andrews) February 11, 2026

It’s perhaps a cruel irony to see the top pick of the 2023 WNBA Draft miss out on a title run: Boston wound up staying fully healthy in an injury-riddled year for the Indiana Fever, one that lost notable contributors like Caitlin Clark, Sophie Cunningham, and Aari McDonald. Behind the contributions of Boston, Natasha Howard, Kelsey Mitchell, and more, the Fever won the in-season title known as the Commissioner’s Cup and fell one win short of appearing in the WNBA Finals.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags