Lady Frogs seeing success with three pointers, senior guard ranks third in C-USA in three-point shots
By Drew Irwin
Skiff Staff

With the Lady Frogs’ field goal percentage down from last season, head coach Jeff Mittie said they are depending on three pointers to make up for it.

“We use an inside out attack,” Mittie said. “We attack the rim first and then come out with the three.”

The team is shooting 35.7 percent from three-point range, hitting an average of 6.7 a game. Senior guard Tricia Payne leads the team with 18 three-point shots, ranking her third in Conference USA. She is also among conference leaders in shooting percentage with 42.7 percent from behind the arc.

“It’s a compliment to our post players,” Payne said. “Their work leaves open shots for our perimeter players.”

A season highlight for Payne came against Marquette Friday. She had a career-high seven three pointers for 21 points.

“You’d like it to be like that every night,” Payne said of her performance. “It was just my night.”

Payne isn’t the only player finding success from three-point range. TCU currently ranks sixth in the conference in three-point field goal percentage.

The Lady Frogs have seven players with at least ten three pointers on the year. No other team in C-USA has accomplished that task.

“If it’s a good shot and they feel good about it, they should always take the three pointer,” Mittie said.

Despite the success from behind the arc, Mittie said the Lady Frogs need to improve in other areas to win. He said the team’s passing needs to improve if the team is going to succeed.

“There are so many facets to the game, and three-point shooting is only one,” he said.

“Our three-point shooting has been good, but balance between perimeter and interior shooting is really important.”

And when the team hasn’t hit its threes, it has found it even harder to win. TCU has shot 41 percent from three-point range in its nine wins but only 33 percent in its 11 losses this season.

“(Missing three pointers) affects our confidence to some extent,” Payne said. “But you can’t let that get you because you can always help out others. If you aren’t on, you give it to the person who is.”

And while threes have mostly been a success for the Lady Frogs, their opponents have struggled with them this season. TCU is first in C-USA in opponents’ three-point field goal percentage, holding opposing teams to 25.5 percent from behind the arc.

Not only that, the Lady Frogs have shut down the top three-point players in C-USA. DePaul’s Ashley Luke, Cincinnati’s Valerie King and Louisville’s Sara Nord were all held under their average three-point output against TCU.

“We’ve got good defenders, and we know their personnel from our scouting reports,” Payne said. “We just put our good defenders on their best players, and we’ve done well.”

Drew Irwin
r.a.irwin@tcu.edu