Hoosiers Now

Grace Berger Scores 9 Points in Final Game of Season, Finishes as Rookie Leader in 3-Point Percentage

Grace Berger scored nine points on perfect 3-for-3 shooting on Sunday, as the Indiana Fever beat the Minnesota Lynx 87-72 to finish up their 2023 season. Berger played for coach Teri Moren and the Indiana Hoosiers for five seasons before being selected with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft.

Daniel Olinger

Grace Berger Scores 9 Points in Final Game of Season, Finishes as Rookie Leader in 3-Point Percentage
Grace Berger Scores 9 Points in Final Game of Season, Finishes as Rookie Leader in 3-Point Percentage /
In this story:

Former Indiana women's basketball superstar Grace Berger ended her WNBA rookie season in style on Sunday. 

The former Hoosier, who became the all-time winningest basketball player in program history during her five years under coach Teri Moren, scored nine points on perfect 3-for-3 shooting. The Indiana Fever also finished their season on a positive note, beating the playoff-bound Minnesota Lynx 87-72. 

Berger really couldn't have played much better in her final game of the 2023 season. She made all three field goals she attempted. Both free throws she shot went in. She even added three rebounds, two assists and two steals in the effort, and the Fever won her 20 minutes of play by 10 points. 

The Fever will not be playing any more games this year, as the team finished Sunday with a 13-27 overall record, placing them 10th in the 12-team WNBA standings. 

Overall, Berger averaged 4.2 points per game as a rookie, but that number undersells just how great of a first year the No. 7 overall draft pick had. She was unable to solidify a consistent spot in coach Christie Sides' rotation during the first half of the season, but broke into the lineup for a good with a 15-point performance against the New York Liberty right before the all-star break. 

Berger played 36 minutes in that game, and never played fewer than eight minutes in any Fever contest past July 12. Putting her minutes played in each game side-by-side with the first half of the season is pretty jarring .

Graph showing the game-by-game minutes played for Indiana Fever guard Grace Berger. This graph was created by Daniel Olinger of HoosiersNow.com using Data Wrapper.
Graph showing the game-by-game minutes played for Indiana Fever guard Grace Berger. This graph was created by Daniel Olinger of HoosiersNow.com using Data Wrapper

To read more about Berger's 15-point performance — which ended up being her season-high scoring total in a single game — CLICK HERE. 

Though Sunday's win had no effect on the Fever's overall season performance (the team was already eliminated from playoff contention and locked into the third-worst record in the WNBA), it was an important victory for the young team. Led by young stars like Berger and Aliyah Boston, the Fever continued to fight until the season's end. 

At one point, Indiana held the league's worst record, with just 8 wins to 24 losses. But the Fever closed out 2023 winning five of their final eight games in the season's final fifth.

One final important statistic of note — Berger's three-point percentage. 

She's still much more of a mid-range operator than she is a shooting specialist, but Berger finished her rookie season in the WNBA having shot 47.1% from three. That's a ridiculously impressive mark no matter how small the sample size might be (Berger shot 16-for-34 from three this season). 

Berger finished the 2023 season with by far the best three-point percentage of any rookie in the WNBA. The last rookie to shoot that well from distance while playing in at least 30 games was Kaleah Copper in 2016, and even in that year, Copper's 46.7% mark wasn't as stellar as Berger's 47.1%. 

As is the case for a good number of WNBA players, Berger will now be headed overseas to continue playing basketball during the offseason. The former Indiana Hoosier will be hooping it up in Spain in 2023-24, as she signed a deal with Gernika KESB in June. 

Related Stories on Indiana Basketball:

  • GRACE BERGER SCORES CLUTCH BASKET: Former Indiana Hoosier Grace Berger scored a clutch basket in the Indiana Fever's 97-84 win over the Dallas Wings. See how she did it by checking out the story here. CLICK HERE
  • GRACE BERGER SCORES 14 POINTS IN FEVER WIN: The former Indiana Hoosier had arguably her best game in the WNBA to date on Thursday, finishing with 14 points, 4 rebounds and 4 assists in the Fever's 90-86 win. CLICK HERE
  • WNBA EXPERT STEVE JONES JR. TAKS GRACE BERGER: To learn more about how the Indiana basketball legend has performed in her first WNBA season, HoosiersNow.com spoke with co-host of The Dunker Spot Steve Jones Jr. about the Indiana Fever's Grace Berger. CLICK HERE
Published
Daniel Olinger
DANIEL OLINGER

Daniel Olinger is a Sports Illustrated/FanNation reporter for HoosiersNow.com. He graduated from Northwestern University with degrees in both journalism and economics. 

Home/Basketball