Last season, Maryland women’s basketball guard Kristen Confroy set a program record by hitting 73 three-pointers as a sophomore. She averaged a little more than two made threes per game during that stretch.
And after going through shooting woes early in her junior campaign — she had made just three shots from long range — Confroy appeared to break out of her slump Sunday against UMBC. She drained five 3-pointers against the Retrievers, leading all scorers with 17 points in the Terps’ 92-42 win.
“Being a shooter, you just have to keep trusting the process,” Confroy said. “Keep getting shots up.”
As a sophomore, Confroy attempted 179 shots from beyond the arc, more than five per game and the seventh-most in program history. She made 73 of them, tying for fourth-best for a Maryland player and the most ever by a sophomore.
Before the season, Confroy said guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough keeps her humble. Walker-Kimbrough led the nation in three-point percentage last year and said she sometimes trades friendly taunts with Confroy.
“One time Coach [Brenda] Frese told [Confroy] that she shoots 90 percent from three,” Walker-Kimbrough said. “So if she misses a shot or is having a bad shooting day, I’ll tell her, ‘That’s part of the 10 percent that you’re missing!'”
But early this season, those missed shots and poor shooting performances were coming too often for Confroy.
Before Sunday, the Solon, Ohio, native’s shot attempts were cut in half. She’d averaged less than 2.5 three-point shots per contest. After shooting 30.4 percent from distance last season, Confroy entered Sunday’s game shooting 17.6 percent from three-point range.
“Every shot I’ve taken, it feels like it’s going in,” Confroy said. “Early on in the year, it just wasn’t.”
Then, she made her first four triples of the game against UMBC. She finished 6-for-8 from the field and 5-for-7 on long balls, totaling 17 points — the same number she entered the game with.
“Obviously it was great to see the ball go in a couple times,” Confroy said.
Frese said the early-season struggles haven’t just been a result of poor shooting.
“We did a better job today of finding her when she was open,” Frese said after the UMBC game. “Sometimes we’ve missed her in the past, where she hasn’t been able to get as many easy looks.”
And even when her shots weren’t falling, Confroy never wavered.
“She knows the percentages, the law of numbers,” Frese said. “It’s going to come her way. She continued to take as many shots as she always does in practice.”
Confroy has started every contest for the Terps this year, a testament to Frese’s faith in her and her ability to contribute without scoring. She’s averaging more than three rebounds and assists per game in addition to having 10 steals and turning the ball over just three times in 2016.
In Maryland’s 78-72 win over No. 7 Louisville on Thursday, Confroy played 39 minutes. She made just one of her five shots (all threes) and finished with six points to go with 11 rebounds and an assist.
But Frese said perhaps Confroy’s biggest contribution against the Cardinals came at the end of the game when the Terps were shooting free throws. Her voice gave confidence to her teammates as Maryland knocked down 13 of 14 freebies.
“She had a consistent voice of confidence,” Frese said. “A lot of people don’t know the leadership she provides, the little things.”
After the outburst against UMBC, though, the team is ready to have the sophomore version of Confroy. They hope her sharpshooting ability will continue as the season progresses.
“That’s going to build as a team for us,” Frese said. “As we continue to play more games under our belt, get comfortable with so many new players, we’ll be able to continue to find her.”
