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Dolson learned from costly miss
Stefanie Dolson's junior season at Minisink Valley High School ended with the most heartbreaking loss of all. Dolson, who had 36 of her team's 44 points against perennial rival Kingston in the New York Section 9 Class AA title game, stepped to the free throw line with 1.1 seconds left. If she hit both foul shots, her team would win barring some half-court heave by Kingston. But she missed the front end, Kingston grabbed the rebound and Dolson was absolutely devastated.
Visions of that miss popped into Dolson's head as she stepped to the line for a 1-and-1 in the final seconds of Saturday's game against Notre Dame. If she missed, the Fighting Irish would be able to push the game for a game-winning two-point basket. Dolson, who had hit 21 of 23 foul shots up to that point, quickly cleared her head of what has to be the lowest point of her basketball career and calmly hit both shots forcing Skylar Diggins to rush up the floor and attempt a game-tying 3-pointer. The shot wasn't close and UConn had an emotional 79-76 victory.
Dolson credits that miss against Kingston for driving home how critical free throws are.
"When it happened (at Notre Dame), that was the first thing that came into my mind was that game how I went out, missed those free throws and we lost the game," Dolson said. "I got that out of my mind and said 'no, that's not going to happen here. I am going to make these.' I went up with confidence and I made them.
"It just showed me how important free throws are. Defense will get you to the end of the game but free throws are what make or break a game sometimes."
Dolson is shooting 92 percent from the free throw line which is an impressive number for anybody but is simply hard to comprehend that a 6-foot-5 freshman center would be shooting better than 90 percent from the line. How rare is it? Well look at some of these career foul-line percentages of the Huskies' best inside players:
Kerry Bascom 79.6
Swin Cash 64.7
Tina Charles 62.1
Asjha Jones 63.6
Rebecca Lobo 69.5
Tamika Williams 65.4
Kara Wolters 58.4
The only drawback is that Dolson has attempted 25 free throws in 15 games, a ratio she as well as the UConn coaches, want to increase.
Visions of that miss popped into Dolson's head as she stepped to the line for a 1-and-1 in the final seconds of Saturday's game against Notre Dame. If she missed, the Fighting Irish would be able to push the game for a game-winning two-point basket. Dolson, who had hit 21 of 23 foul shots up to that point, quickly cleared her head of what has to be the lowest point of her basketball career and calmly hit both shots forcing Skylar Diggins to rush up the floor and attempt a game-tying 3-pointer. The shot wasn't close and UConn had an emotional 79-76 victory.
Dolson credits that miss against Kingston for driving home how critical free throws are.
"When it happened (at Notre Dame), that was the first thing that came into my mind was that game how I went out, missed those free throws and we lost the game," Dolson said. "I got that out of my mind and said 'no, that's not going to happen here. I am going to make these.' I went up with confidence and I made them.
"It just showed me how important free throws are. Defense will get you to the end of the game but free throws are what make or break a game sometimes."
Dolson is shooting 92 percent from the free throw line which is an impressive number for anybody but is simply hard to comprehend that a 6-foot-5 freshman center would be shooting better than 90 percent from the line. How rare is it? Well look at some of these career foul-line percentages of the Huskies' best inside players:
Kerry Bascom 79.6
Swin Cash 64.7
Tina Charles 62.1
Asjha Jones 63.6
Rebecca Lobo 69.5
Tamika Williams 65.4
Kara Wolters 58.4
The only drawback is that Dolson has attempted 25 free throws in 15 games, a ratio she as well as the UConn coaches, want to increase.
Labels: Stefanie Dolson
posted by Jim Fuller at
7:53 PM
3 Comments:
.
With all the so called Great Coaches at the NCAA D1, NBA, and WNBA levels - Why do some of their Players still Shoot Below 70% from the Free Throw Line?
.
Why do they miss free throws?? Get a ball and shoot 10 shots in your driveway. How many did you make?? Now you've got 500, 2000, 8000, 16000 people watching you and if you miss your team may lose. Pressure?? None bigger. Yea, it's only a game, but don't tell me that when I'm on the foul line.
It's not that easy. It's like saying why does can't a .333 hitter in baseball hit .667 or why doesn't a quarterback who completes 60 percent of his passes complete 80 percent. There's a lot more to it than shooting a lot of free throws in practice.
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