At the McDaniel residence in Cold Spring, the driveway culminates in a basketball hoop. It’s a confined area, making it difficult for baseline jump shots unless it’s merely a put-back. However, the driveway’s length suits Camilla McDaniel’s style of play perfectly. As a senior at Haldane, she’s contemplating pursuing college basketball and has received interest from several schools. Standing at 5-foot-7, she’s not considered short, but she’s not the type of player colleges typically position beneath the basket.

While she possesses speed and driving ability, her greatest asset is her proficiency in shooting from beyond the arc, particularly the 3-pointer. The prominence of the 3-point shot has surged recently, partly due to basketball prodigy Caitlin Clark. Clark’s exceptional talent has garnered unprecedented attention for women’s basketball, particularly her ability to sink shots from remarkable distances, akin to Mars.

Clark holds the record for the most 3-pointers made from 25 feet or more by any female or male college player in the past five years. Her effortless shots from 35 feet have astounded spectators. Clark’s prowess has illuminated the significance of the 3-point shot and will undoubtedly inspire future generations of shooters, both girls and boys.

But well before Clark’s from-another-ZIP-code shots were being played on nightly sportscasts that previously devoted little time to women’s games, kids like McDaniel were nailing 3s too.

The rise of the 3-pointer
McDaniel loves to shoot long. Anywhere and anytime.

In the driveway, she takes on her dad, Jeffrey, in 3-point horse contests. She’s the better 3-point shooter, she contends, saying her dad “tries, though.”

She gets it done on the varsity courts, too. McDaniel surpassed 100 career 3-pointers by draining 74 during her recently-concluded final season at Haldane.
It wasn’t like she was forgotten and left unguarded.

“One of my favorite things is when a coach yells out to watch for No. 3 and, then, taking a 3 and making it,” McDaniel said.

She’s not the only one. During the Section 1 girls and boys basketball playoffs at the Westchester County Center this past winter, players drained 3-pointers from all over the court.

Gina Maher has witnessed the evolution from a front-row seat.

Officially, the National Federation of State High School Associations and National High School Federation approved 3-point shots for high school basketball to begin in the 1987-88 season. But never every state and league adopted the 3-point shot right away.

Flipping through part of her huge collection of old scorebooks, Maher, the 800-plus-win girls coach at Irvington High, found the first 3-pointers in Section 1 history falling during the 1990-91 season.

Maher figures the popularity started to grow a decade ago before recently exploding,

“I think it was coming 10 years ago but it has been a big, big, big difference,” she said. “The last two years, it has become an immense part of basketball.

“Even in 2010, not a whole lot of kids were hitting a lot of 3’s. But you look at the teams that won sectionals this year and all have girls who can it the 3. It’s definitely a big part of basketball today, both male and female. But you can’t just get away with (only) the 3-point shot.”

3-pointers and college recruiting
Longtime Ossining coach Dan Ricci, who has guided teams to five state titles and sent three players to powerhouse UConn, has long found success with the 3.

The state record book lists Ossining’s Soniya Chong, who went on to become a multiple-time national champion at UConn, as the single-season record-holder with 106 3-pointers in one season. Former Pride players Andra Espinoza-Hunter and Julia Iorio are tied for second place. Of the top 20 spots on that list, Ossining players hold 10 of them.

“We’ve always shot a lot of 3s. … We’ve shot a lot of 3s off the fast break,” Ricci said. “My philosophy is I’d rather have them take a wide-open 3 than a contested 2. You have a lot better chance (with a 3) than shooting over someone 6-2.”

Girls’ success at hitting from long range doesn’t surprise the 35-year coach. While he considers boys generally better at driving to the rim, he thinks girls are usually better shooters.

He remarked he’d put Chong and Espinoza-Hunter against just about anyone in 3-point shooting. He noted it wasn’t unusual for them to hit from eight feet behind the 3-point arc.

Maher says colleges are always looking for shooters, but she stressed that players have to be able to do more than just shoot 3s.

But the 3 can certainly make a difference in whether someone is recruited.

This year, Ossining senior Zoey Jowers, who hit around 10 last year, nailed 40 3-pointers. Junior Sinaya Bell, who wasn’t a 3-point shooter as a sophomore, made more than 30.

At 5-foot-9, Bell wants to play in college and looks at the 3 as something that has expanded her game. She said college teams have boosted the “image” of the 3 and inspired younger players to work on the shot, which she said requires good arm positioning and powerful leg drive, rather than huge upper-body strength.

“Any one of us can shoot it if we work on it,” she said.

‘It’s trendy at the moment’

Tappan Zee girls head coach Riley Chevrier née Harrington got a full ride to play basketball at St. Thomas Aquinas in Sparkill at just 5-foot-3.

She was a key member of Maher’s 2010 state-championship Irvington High team as a senior. Speedy and a gifted passer, she was also a good outside shooter.

But as much as Chevrier recalls working on outside shooting in practice, she said Irvington didn’t have a set play for taking a 3.

“If you had one, you’d take it,” she said.

While the information can no doubt be found in Maher’s scorebooks, Chevrier has no clue how many 3-pointers she made in high school, saying that’s not really something they kept track of or thought about.

Now, she keeps track of her TZ team’s 3-pointers. She said junior Kristen Phelan made more than 40% of her 3-point attempts this winter, a percentage topping even Kennedy Catholic star Madison Carlo, who MaxPrep lists at No. 4 among high school girls in New York last season with 84 3-pointers made.

When she was in high school, Chevrier said Ossining was a hard-to-defend exception.

Now?

“Teams hit them just like a free throw,” she said. “I think it’s becoming harder and harder for players to not have that as part of their games.”

“It’s really trendy at the moment,” she continued, remarking that media and social media − which she terms a “whole different animal” − are fueling the popularity.

For players like McDaniel, the 3 will always be part of their game.

“They can change the energy,” McDaniel said. “A big 3 that’s made really shifts the atmosphere.”