Shooting the Three Is No Longer a Shot in the Dark : Basketball: Since its introduction in 1987, the three-point basket has become an integral part of the girls’ game.

One of the basics of basketball is the triple-threat position. That’s a position from which an athlete is a threat to pass, drive or shoot.

Now the game has a new triple threat--the three-point shot. And it finally seems to have come of age in girls’ basketball.

When the 19-foot 9-inch arc was introduced three years ago it skipped by like a pebble, making only a ripple in girls’ basketball waters. But this season the three-point shot has made quite a splash as Orange County girls, such as Debbie Fischer of Edison High, get comfortable with shooting from behind the three-point line.

Fischer set a reported Southern Section record hitting 10 three-point shots in a Dec. 14 victory over Corona del Mar in the Savanna Tournament. She leads a handful of girls who have emerged as regular three-point shooters. Girls such as Marina’s Melisa Sortino, Brea-Olinda’s Aimee McDaniel and Santa Margarita’s Kristen Mulligan, all of whom have had seven in a game, Rancho Alamitos’ Shellie Tsuji, who hit four in one quarter, and many others who have converted the shot from a desperation fling attempted at the end of a quarter to an integral part of the game.

As more and more coaches realize the three-point shot’s potential to create sudden swings in game momentum, they are incorporating it into their practices. And as more girls practice the shot, they have begun to overcome mental obstacles and myths about not being strong enough to shoot the three.

El Toro Coach Greg Yeck has taken a 180-degree turn on his three-point shot philosophy.

“It seemed to me when it first came out that everybody was saying it was no big deal,” Yeck said. “It was not going to affect the girls’ game that much because who is going to be shooting it? It might be one of those things when somebody puts up a desperation shot at the end of a half. And you had to be conscious of it because it could beat you, but as far as it becoming a regular part of the game plan, I don’t think coaches were thinking about it.

“To tell the truth, that was my attitude too. I said I’m not going to worry about it too much. I don’t want the kids thinking about it. . . . Now I think if they have the ability, let them do it.”

Yeck’s attitude has changed partly because he has some players who can shoot the three-pointer. The first year the rule was introduced Yeck had center Elaine Youngs, now playing basketball and volleyball at UCLA, who had enough power to pull up and take a jump shot from three-point range.

“It was just something she could do at the end of a ballgame if we needed it, that kind of thing, but we weren’t really looking for it,” Yeck said.

Last year El Toro’s Kristen Bevis took about three or four shots from three-point range each game; this season Yeck has four players who have been given the green light to shoot the three.

Yeck also has incorporated three-point drills during practice for the four. And his players practiced the three-point shot a lot over the summer. Point guard Yoshioka leads the way, shooting 19 of 38 for 50% in preleague play. But it is teammate Tracy Heiser who has had the biggest three-point basket for the Chargers this season.

Last weekend Fischer and Edison had the tables turned on them when Heiser’s three-point shot with nine seconds to play tied the game and sent it into overtime. Yoshioka sank another three in the extra period and El Toro eventually won, 63-59, ending Edison’s eight-game winning streak.

Heiser, who made 14 of 38 three-point shots in preleague play, doesn’t remember taking one three-point shot last year. Like many girls, she had to be persuaded to shoot from 19-9. But once they get started, they have been hard to stop.

“The first time my coach said shoot a three I said, ‘You’re kidding,’ ” Heiser said. “I would stand behind the line and look at the basket and think, ‘That is so far away. I am never going to be able to do this.’ But we just kept shooting them and shooting them and it felt like I was throwing it up less and less.”

First-year Coach Philip Abraham has designed Edison’s offense around getting Fischer open around the three-point line. “A lot of it is mental,” Abraham said. “If you take away that line, you are going to find a lot of girls who can shoot it from out there. The fact that the line is there, it puts up the mental barrier. It gets girls asking ‘Am I a three-point shooter or am I not a three-point shooter?’ It is not a terribly far shot and again the smaller ball really aids the girls in getting it there.”

Because of some reluctance on her part and a conservative coaching philosophy, Fischer attempted only 11 three-point shots last season. This season, she has made 61 of 147 under Abraham.

The new strategy is paying off for Edison, which doesn’t have a starter taller than 5-10. After starting the season unranked, the Chargers won 11 of their first 14 games and are now ranked fourth in 4-AA. With the three-point shot as the cornerstone of their offense, they have upset ranked teams that have much taller and more talented players.

The Chargers surprised Ocean View, with 6-2 center Jenny Sullivan, the Sunset League most valuable player, in the championship of the Marina Tournament. In the same tournament, Edison beat Mission Viejo and 6-2 center Jennifer Rohrig, and Lakewood, which has three 6-foot post players.

“You know me, I believe in the three-point shot all the way,” Abraham said. “It forces teams to play defense. They can’t stand around in a zone like most high school girls do. It lets you use the whole halfcourt and pulls teams out away from the basket.”

Marina Coach Pete Bonny, who coaches Sortino, agrees. He had his junior varsity girls taking three-point shots regularly last year at Newport Harbor. The team set a junior varsity girls’ basketball record at the school with the most victories in a season, 10.

“When I coached JV nobody could shoot the three, but teams would be so stunned when one went in that we kept trying them,” Bonny said. “The big thing is, who cares if you miss? The rebounds are all long, they go to you. We fired a ton when I coached over at Newport. Maybe one of six would go in, but it worked well for us. You get the caroms if you don’t get it in and if you make it, the other team starts shaking their heads.”

Long rebounds are just what a short team such as Edison needs. Abraham is so sold on the shot that he says “if you’re going to give a player three points for making the shot, (the player) should get three foul shots if she’s fouled out there.”

Edison’s Fischer already has set one three-point record in the Southern Section and is on the brink of breaking another. Her 61 three-point baskets this season is five short of the Southern Section single-season record of 66 set by Linda Watson of Lynwood last season.

She is one of several girls who dispel the myth that girls aren’t strong enough to shoot three-point shots.

Not many of the girls have the strength to shoot a pure jump shot from 19-9. What they shoot is a modified jump shot or a set shot.

Rancho Alamitos’ Tsuji is only 5-2 and about 100 pounds, Yoshioka is only 5-4 and they both shoot the set shot. Fischer shoots a modified jump shot. She steps forward and her motion begins at about her waist so she can generate extra lift.

Des Flood of Anaheim, who runs shooting camps for boys and girls, says the key to the three is not arm strength. It is wrist strength, and girls have enough.

“I think it is a myth that girls are not strong enough to shoot three-pointers,” Flood said. “The wrist is a very strong part of any human being’s body. The girls just haven’t learned the technique to be able to deliver the ball. Their technique might not be perfectly correct but that they are making it would indicate that they are strong enough to get the ball there.”

Dr. William Whiting, a professor of sport biomechanics in UCLA’s kinesiology department, agrees. Williams coaches boys’ basketball at Eagle Rock High School and has worked with girls on their shooting.

“Mechanically the shot is a combination of horizontal and vertical forces,” Whiting said, “and the difference is in how the boys in general versus girls in general generate the shot. Boys tend to get lift for vertical forces by way of their jump. Girls, instead of jumping vertically, they tend to take one step forward and bend their knees, then extend the knees with their feet in a forward-back position to get lift.

“In order to get the forward-back difference they have to start behind the line so that when they take that step forward they are still behind the line.”

That is one reason players such as Fischer regularly shoot from well behind the three-point line.

Sortino of Marina also practices from about 23 feet. She does that so she can get her low-release shot off without defenders blocking it.

“She is shooting right above the shoulders, so we are talking upper chest,” Marina Coach Bonny said. “There is no way she’s going to get it up over her head on those super long shots. She’s just not physically strong enough. She’s on a weight program and everything, but that’s just a physical limitation.” Sortino, who will play at the University of San Diego next season, hit 44 of 90 in preleague play this season.

“When I shoot my three-pointer I concentrate on using more leg, and when I’m in closer I don’t have to use as much leg,” Sortino said. “Last year I only had 13 total. I didn’t ever look for it and didn’t really practice it either. The only time I took it was when we needed it, now I look for it in the middle of the game, even when we don’t need it.”

Fischer and many of the girls have given up a bit of form to be able to launch a shot from 19-9, but the more they practice the more consistent they become.

“When we give a clinic we always stress to the players that they should volume shoot,” Flood said. “A player who doesn’t have good technique and goes out and shoots 500 shots a day will increase his accuracy.”

As girls get better coaching earlier in their careers, experts say, their three-point shooting will improve.

“It is partly a developmental factor,” said Whiting of UCLA. “You will see young kids shooting with a regulation ball at a 10-foot basket, you will see them shooting off their hip because they are not strong enough to get it off the regular way. Boys, by the time they get into eighth or ninth grade, have the strength to convert over to a more regular jump shot and raise the release point (above the head). With girls, in general, they don’t start playing as early, so developmentally they are a bit behind with their skills. If you gave them the same exposure to shooting technique and skills I think they could be trained to shoot three-point shots.

“Already in the past five years there had been a rapid improvement in basketball skills for girls. I can remember five years ago watching a girls’ basketball game and there would be 57 jump balls, it was a joke.”

The laughter is dying down on the third anniversary of the three-point shot as more and more girls become triple threats.