‘Flamethrowers Around Mackenzie’: Indiana Close to Breaking Its 3-Point Record

No. 12 Indiana women's basketball begins postseason play in the Big Ten Tournament Friday night in Minneapolis. The Hoosiers are the best 3-point shooting team in the country. They are also close to making program history.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Heading into postseason play Friday, Indiana women’s basketball is the best 3-point shooting team in the nation and 27 3-pointers away from breaking the program’s single-season record.

Indiana already has made more three-point shots this season than last — in four fewer games. If the Hoosiers play four more games this year, they need to average almost seven made three-point shots a game to break the school record — and they are hoping to play more games than that and advance in the NCAA Tournament after the Big Ten Tournament this weekend.

Indiana has 233 3-pointers on the season. The target record is 259 set in 2013-2014, the season before head coach Teri Moren arrived in Bloomington. Since then, Moren has coached five teams that cracked the program’s top-10 list for made 3-pointers. Last season’s 229 3-pointers was the fourth on the list.

Hitting 260 would join the list of new records set this season. Mackenzie Holmes has already broken the all-time scoring record, and Sara Scalia has shattered the single-season 3-point record with 91 and counting, surpassing some of the program’s best all-time shooters. This was Moren’s plan to begin with; the coaching staff’s vision. Now, it’s paying dividends. Four starters are more than capable shooters from outside.

“Well, it’s been fun,” Moren said Wednesday. “We knew that when we were building our roster, we had to put five, as we call them, flamethrowers around Mackenzie. We were able to do that with the portal and getting Sara Scalia, getting Syd [Parrish] home. Certainly, bringing Yarden [Garzon] in. Chloe [Moore-McNeil] has become efficient outside the arc ... part of the plan how we wanted to construct our personnel, our roster, that we needed shooters around Mackenzie.”

Indiana has the highest 3-point percentage in the nation, slightly above the unanimous No. 1 South Carolina. The Hoosiers have shot 233-for-576 beyond the arc (40.45%), which includes the abysmal 5-for-32 3-point outing at now-No. 2 Stanford. Moore-McNeil shot 33% last season. She’s shooting 40% this season. In comparison, Garzon is shooting marginally poorer — which means 45.5% to lead the Big Ten. Garzon’s 70 3-pointers set Indiana’s freshman 3-point record last year.

Back in February, Moore-McNeil shot 2-for-13 in four games. In the next two, she shot 9-for-9.

“All of our kids, they have the green light,” Moren said postgame on Feb. 14. “The reason they have the green light, and I’ve talked about this forever, is because of the work they do inside of practice, outside of practice, on their shots … you see us shooting the way we’re capable of.”

Parrish, the 2020 Miss Indiana Basketball and high school All-American, went to Oregon for two seasons and shot 35.4% beyond the arc in her last season there. This season, her second at Indiana since transferring, Parrish’s 38.5% is an improvement. But Scalia, another transfer from Minnesota, has made the starkest transformation. She’s morphed into Indiana’s automatic sharpshooter, only second to Caitlin Clark and Garzon in the Big Ten for made 3-pointers and percentage, respectively. 

Scalia began her career at Minnesota. In her third and final season there, Scalia shot 41.3% beyond the arc. At Assembly Hall, she torched the Hoosiers for 26 points, with seven 3-pointers. In her debut season with the Hoosiers, Scalia rotated in-and-out of the starting five and declined to 34.4% from 3-point range. She didn’t make any in eight games. Moren has mentioned that Scalia’s confidence last season occasionally wavered. This season, she’s continuously posted standout performances: 5-for-9 versus Princeton, 8-for-11 versus Bowling Green.

There’s more.

Scalia has only gone two games this season without making any 3-pointers. She followed those games up by going 4-for-10 and 5-for-11.

Because Indiana has many capable shooters, the pressure of any one player having to carry the workload likely decreases. Moore-McNeil, Parrish or Garzon can go off beside Scalia — likely helped by the fact that teams can be punished for sagging off any particular Hoosier. 

And even when Parrish didn’t play at Purdue due to an injury, Scalia, Moore-McNeil and Garzon combined for 14 3-pointers in her absence. Indiana’s 15 that day set the program record for single-game 3-pointers on the road — previously broken by the Hoosiers two road games prior with 14.

“It's what we envisioned,” Moren said. “It’s fun to have five players on the floor that can all score. It certainly gives you balance.”

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• MOREN PROVIDES UPDATE ON HOLMES, MEISTER: Mackenzie Holmes and Lilly Meister both exited Sunday's win over Maryland with injuries, and head coach Teri Moren updated their status Monday. CLICK HERE
• INDIANA-MARYLAND GAME STORY: Arielle Wisne performed the National Anthem, and all three seniors had postgame tribute videos. CLICK HERE
• WHAT TERI MOREN SAID AFTER 71-54 WIN OVER MARYLAND: Here's the full transcript and video of Teri Moren's press conference following Indiana's win over Maryland on Senior Day. CLICK HERE
• SARA SCALIA SENIOR DAY VIDEO: Here's the video of Sara Scalia's senior day tribute following Indiana women's basketball's 71-54 win over Maryland on Sunday at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall. CLICK HERE