It was a display of 3-point shooting from the Valpo women’s basketball team on Saturday in Carbondale, Ill. which was unmatched in program history and ranks right up there with the top efforts in D-I women’s basketball in the last decade, as the Brown and Gold shot 15-for-20 from downtown in a 75-64 victory over Southern Illinois. Leading the way was junior Shay Frederick (Greenville, Wis./Hortonville), who scored a career-best 28 points and went 6-for-6 from deep.

How It Happened

• Fittingly, Valpo opened the game with a 3-pointer on its first possession from junior Carie Weinman (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South [Denver]). But Valpo hit just one more triple over the opening 10 minutes.
• Valpo led 11-9 following a triple from senior Caitlin Morrison (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South) with 3:14 to play in the first period. SIU kept Valpo off the scoreboard the rest of the quarter, however, ending the period on an 8-0 run to lead 17-11 at the end of the first.
• The story of the second quarter proved to be Frederick. The junior poured in 17 points in the second 10 minutes alone, going 6-of-6 from the field and 5-of-5 from deep.
• Frederick’s 3-pointer with 4:35 to play in the first half tied the game at 24-24, and two possessions later, she connected on another triple to give Valpo the lead for good.
• Those two 3-pointers came during a stretch of nearly five minutes on the defensive end where the Brown and Gold kept SIU off the scoreboard.
• Valpo looked to take perfect advantage of a two-for-one situation going into halftime, as Frederick came up and drilled a 3-pointer with 39 seconds to play in the half. Following two SIU free throws, the junior connected on her fifth triple of the quarter with just a few seconds remaining to make it a seven-point game. But the Salukis got a 60-foot heave at the buzzer from Caitlin Link to cut Valpo’s lead to 33-29 at the half.
• SIU cut Valpo’s lead to one possession twice in the third quarter, but both times Valpo answered — first with a Morrison triple, and then later with a driving layup from Weinman with 6:41 to play in the quarter.
• That basket from Weinman started a 13-2 Valpo run over a stretch of almost four minutes which extended its lead into double digits. When freshman Lauren Gunn (Fishers, Ind./Lawrence North) knocked down a 3-pointer with 2:55 to play in the period, Valpo held a 51-37 lead.
• Valpo actually extended its advantage to 17 points late in the quarter before the Salukis hit a pair of free throws in the final seconds to make it a 59-44 scoreline with 10 minutes to play.
• The lead remained in double figures for most of the fourth quarter. SIU put together a 9-0 spurt late in the period to close to within 70-64 with 37 seconds to play, but Valpo went 5-of-6 from the foul line in the final 30 seconds to see out the win.

Inside the Game

• 15-for-20 from 3-point range. The line speaks for itself. The historic aspects of the shooting performance are multitudinous, almost as numerous as the number of 3-pointers the Brown and Gold hit.
• The 75% clip Valpo hit at from deep matches a program record. It previously hit 75% at Western Michigan on Dec. 19, 2012, but that mark was achieved on just 9-of-12 shooting.
• The 75% mark is the best this year by a D-I women’s team attempting at least 20 triples, bettering the 68.2% clip (15-for-22) Maryland hit at against Iowa just four days ago.
• Going back even further, a few other teams in the past decade have matched Valpo’s 15-for-20 mark in a single game, but none have shot better on at least 20 attempts since Tennessee went 16-for-21 from downtown on March 6, 2011.
• The 15 made triples are tied for fourth-most in a single game in program history. Valpo has now hit 14 or more 3-pointers four times this year, three of which have come in the last six games.
• Over Mary Evans’ three-year tenure, Valpo has knocked down 14+ 3-pointers nine times.
• As previously mentioned, Frederick set a program record by connecting on six triples without missing from beyond the arc. The previous best was five 3-pointers without a miss, achieved multiple times — most recently by Weinman this year in the win over Western Michigan.
• Morrison came up one 3-pointer shy of her career best, going 4-for-9 from deep.
• While on most nights a 4-for-9 line from downtown might stand out, Morrison was actually the only Valpo player on Saturday to miss a 3-pointer. Four other players combined to go 5-for-5 from behind the arc.
• Frederick led all players with her career-high 28-point effort, besting by one point her output at Wisconsin earlier this season. The junior also dished out a team-high six assists in the win.
• 17 of Frederick’s 28 points came in the second period, her career high for a single quarter and the second-most by a Valpo player in a single period since the move to quarters. Frederick now has scored 10+ points in a quarter 14 times in her career, eight of which have occurred in MVC play this year.
• Morrison’s four 3-pointers propelled her to a 15-point evening, her sixth game scoring in double figures in Valley play this season.
• Weinman notched 14 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the floor and added five assists and a game-high three steals.
• Incredibly, despite its prolificacy from the 3-point line, Valpo actually attempted fewer triples than SIU on Saturday, as the Salukis went 7-for-24 from downtown. That is the first time this season Valpo has tried fewer 3-pointers than its opponent.
• SIU held a 31-19 advantage on the glass and scored 18 second-chance points, but Valpo forced 21 Saluki turnovers and converted those into 31 points.
• The win extends Valpo’s winning streak to three straight games, the second time since joining the Valley it has won three consecutive MVC contests. A win on Sunday would give Valpo its first four-game winning streak within league play since the 2006-07 team closed the Mid-Con regular season slate with four straight victories.

Thoughts From Coach Evans

“Overall, I am pretty pleased with our performance. Playing in Carbondale is never an easy task, and I thought our players’ focus and preparation leading up to the game was really good. I think we were pretty good defensively though the first three quarters and had a little let down in the fourth. We will need to continue to try and play a full 40 minutes of basketball on both the offensive and defensive ends.”

“I think our team played really unselfish offensively today. We had 17 assists on 25 made baskets. They worked really well today to get the best shots that we could and I think we were able to get more catch-and-shoot 3’s, which are the shots that we practice every day.”

“Shay was fantastic tonight. I thought she was really aggressive from the tip and didn’t second-guess any of her shots. She did a great job looking for her shots and facilitating for her teammates.”

“We will need to come out with the same aggressiveness tomorrow that we had today, and will need to do a much better job rebounding and taking care of the basketball. We can’t give Southern Illinois 12+ offensive rebounds and expect to have a positive result.”

Next Up

Valpo (10-10, 6-7 MVC) will take aim at a season sweep of the Salukis on Sunday afternoon from Carbondale. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m., and the game can be seen live on ESPN3 and heard live on WVUR (95.1 FM, Valparaiso).