Kentucky WBB shows first signs of 3-point shooting prowess

On Monday night, Kentucky Women’s Basketball head coach Kyra Elzy promised her players were better 3-point shooters than they showed. A few days later, the ‘Cats helped Elzy keep her word.

Kentucky destroyed the Morehead State Eagles 73-48 in Memorial Coliseum on Friday evening. In the win, UK shot an impressive 10-23 (43%) from beyond the arc. Elzy believes this performance isn’t an outlier, but the standard. The ‘Cats shot 2-18 from deep in the 82-78 season-opening win over Radford.

Setting a standard

“We need to be [shooting] 40% or higher. We’re looking for transition 3s. We’re looking for dribble drives, kick outs, open 3s – we can knock those down. Good to see the ball go in the basket at Memorial Coliseum tonight,” Elzy said following the win over Morehead State.

The expectation of 40-plus percent is a big one. The best perimeter-shooting team in recent Kentucky WBB memory was the 2017-2018 squad, which had a combined 36.8% 3-point percentage. For reference, this team needs to make another 17 baskets from deep without missing to reach the coveted 40% mark.

Kentucky has the talent

Nonetheless, if any team could shoot 40% from downtown, it’s this year’s group. Graduate student Robyn Benton shot 37.3% from beyond the arc last season and shot over 50% from range during the SEC Tournament.

Following Benton’s lead, Maddie Scherr is a sniper. Although the combo guard never shot above 33% from 3-point land at Oregon, Scherr has seemingly found her footing at UK. With perhaps the smoothest jumper on the team, Scherr shot a perfect 4-4 from deep on Friday night.

Lastly, Kentucky has veteran marksman Blair Green. The fifth-year senior has more experience than anybody when it comes to knocking down 3’s. The Wildcat has made 60 3-pointers while at Kentucky, and has done it efficiently. Green shot 33.3% from outside the arc in her junior year.

After a subpar first game in which she shot 4-12 from the field, Green feels like she rediscovered her confidence on Friday night following a 6-11 clip.

“I think it’s just kind of giving myself grace. That was my first game coming back from my injury, and just, you know – the nerves and stuff,” Green said. “The 3 will come eventually, so I’m not too worried about that.”

A quick glimpse of the future

These three hot-handed ‘Cats only needed 53 seconds last night to show BBN what they’re capable of. With 9:12 left in the third quarter, Benton hit a 3-pointer to start Kentucky’s second half. Only 33 seconds later, Green drained her own basket from deep. Not to be left out, Scherr knocked down the team’s third-straight 3-pointer to give Kentucky a convincing 35-16 lead.

Clearly, this team has endless capabilities. But, they’ll need consistency. The ‘Cats will have their first chance to show consistency when they take on Coastal Carolina at 1 p.m. on Sunday in Memorial Coliseum. The game will be broadcast on SEC Network+.