Trey chic

Lady cagers, Northwestern prolific in 3-point shooting

Helen Darling brings the ball up the court. She feeds it to Tiffany Longworth, who eyes Angie Potthoff roaming free along the baseline. Potthoff and Longworth make quick eye contact, and Longworth launches the basketball on a line toward the backboard.

Sound like your typical Lady Lion offensive possession? No, not really because in reality, no one on coach Rene Portland's roster can dunk. But what the women in blue and white may lack in ups, they possess in marksmanship.

So far this season the Lady Lions have fired 228 3-point attempts, sinking 76 of them for a 33 percent accuracy rate. Junior guard Tara Macciocco, shooting 43 percent from downtown, leads the squad. Behind her are senior Tiffany Longworth at 35 percent and Jamie Parsons at 27 percent. And the trifectas are not just confined to State College.

The art of shooting from beyond the 3-point arc is one that has grown recently in women's basketball. Teams like Northwestern basically live and die by the shot, making them dangerous against more powerful opponents and more susceptible to upset by poorer teams.

Penn State will go against the Northwestern Wildcats at 7:30 p.m. tomorrow in the Bryce Jordan Center. The Cats are the most prolific 3-point shooting team in the Big Ten, led by senior guard Michelle Ratay and sophomore guard Kristina Divjak, who each are shooting 42 percent from 3-point range.

Northwestern shot 479 bombs last season and are on pace to top that this season. Ratay said taking a bunch of 3-pointers was something that could not be avoided.

"It's just happened playing with four guards. We're kind of living and dying with it," Ratay said. "Teams are playing us to shoot the three, and we're just having trouble adjusting the rest of our game."

In other words, when the shots don't fall, the Cats don't win. And when the shots do fall, no team is safe.

"It's a strength because clubs have to extend their defense out on us," Divjak, last week's Big Ten Player of the Week said. "We don't want to live and die by the three."

"There have been games that we put it in with consistency and games that we haven't put it in with consistency," Northwestern coach Don Perrelli said.

Perrelli, however, refused to admit to an all-out dependence on long range shots.

"We can generate points inside and outside," he said.

Penn State can generate points from the inside and outside as well, but the game plan of Lady Lion opponents always has been to guard against Potthoff in the paint. That has allowed guards like Longworth and Macciocco to get open looks.

Longworth is Penn State's all-time leader in 3-pointers attempted in a season (172) and 3-pointers made in one season (60). Macciocco is much improved this year and is just as dangerous as Longworth from downtown.

"I'm definitely a lot more confident out there this year," Macciocco said. "I'm much more relaxed out there."

More relaxation has spelled more gray hairs for opposing coaches.

"It's my forte. I'm not much of a slasher," Macciocco said. "I like to shoot the ball. I think the 3-pointer gets the crowd involved."