🏀 Unrivaled Weekly: Can’t stop, won’t stop
From The GIST (hi@thegistsports.com)

Leveling The Playing Field
It’s finally Friday, and that means we’re back in your inbox with the second edition of Unrivaled Weekly, The GIST’s deep-dive women’s hoops coverage powered by our pals at Unrivaled. Thanks for being here.
- ICYMI: Every Friday, we break down the league’s hottest hands, vibe-check the week’s top off-court moments, and unpack the plays that hit different — and there’s lots to discuss ahead of another riveting weekend of action. Let’s hoop to it.
Women really do it all. Just ask Phantom BC’s Kelsey Plum, who paused mid-game to fix Lunar Owl Rachel Banham’s hair…before casually dropping a cool 38 points to seal the W. She’s a girl’s girl and a human highlight reel.
👏 The art of the pick-and-roll

The GIST: Dearica Hamby was virtually unstoppable in Vinyl’s BC’s lopsided win over Hive BC last Sunday, dropping an Unrivaled-record 40 points. The most remarkable aspect of Hamby’s feat? She eclipsed the league-best scoring mark without a single three-pointer.
- Hamby’s prowess shouldn’t come as a surprise: She’s a 3x3 Olympian and has mastered the art of the pick-and-roll — so let’s break down the Vinyl’s incredibly effective ball screen.
🤔 What is a pick-and-roll?: A “pick” or “screen” is one of the most versatile plays in basketball, in which a stationary player blocks the defender in order to create an advantage. This can happen on the ball (aka when a player screens the defender of the player who is dribbling) or away from the ball to free up a potential pass. Here’s a helpful video breaking it all down.
- As for the pick-and-roll, this one’s extra special because it directly involves the person performing the screen. The “roll” happens when the player setting the screen cuts straight to the basket — and it often ends in buckets.
🌟 Hamby’s skillset: Hamby is the perfect player to perform a pick-and-roll — she’s big, strong, and physical, plus she finishes well at the rim. In fact, Hamby shot an impressive 60% from the field in the Vinyl’s first three games, highlighted by Sunday’s showing where she made 16 of her 22 shot attempts for a mind-boggling 73% field goal percentage. Unreal.
💿 The Vinyl advantage: The Vinyl have really leaned into Hamby’s strengths and are incredibly effective operating out of the pick-and-roll as a team. Typically, the Vinyl set a ball screen in the middle third of the court, so Hamby’s roll is directly into the paint. This puts a ton of pressure on that third defender, forcing them to make an incredibly difficult decision:
- Help to cover Hamby’s roll or stay with the player they’re supposed to be guarding? When the options are a sharpshooting Rhyne Howard, who knocked down six threes on Sunday, or Hamby’s soft hands at the rim, it’s a lose-lose situation.
🌬️ Breeze BC turned the ball over 14 times in their 73–62 Friday win over Hive BC, six more turnovers than their opponent. Overcoming a turnover differential isn’t easy because you’re handing the other team free opportunities to score — but the Breeze still swayed their way to a dub. So how?
- Five of those turnovers resulted in a dead ball situation (like when an errant pass goes out of bounds and the play stops). This allowed Breeze to set up their defense, a much less detrimental outcome than a live ball turnover, which can lead to easy buckets.
🔥 Lunar Owl Aaliyah Edwards will break Unrivaled’s consecutive double-double record
Edwards has stepped up in Napheesa Collier’s absence, recording double-digit points and rebounds in all three of the Owls’ games this season. Now, she’s on the cusp of breaking the double-double record of four straight games, which is currently held by Angel Reese.
- The Owls play Mist BC tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. ET, where Edwards will have to contend with both Alanna Smith and Breanna Stewart, a task she’s more than capable of.
Thanks for balling with us — and see you next week!
Yours through timeouts and technicals,
The GIST Team
Today’s email was brought to you by Lisa Minutillo. Fact-checking by Elisha Gunaratnam. Managing edits by Lauren Tuiskula. Head of content Ellen Hyslop.