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OU WOMEN’S BASKETBALL
Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale still marvels at how Shaina Pellington did it last year.
“She averaged what, 13, 14, 15 points a game?” Coale said.
All without the use of a jump shot.
Pellington averaged 13.1 points as a freshman, but is still searching for her first collegiate 3-point make. Last year she attempted and missed all three tries.
Her revamped jumper — which is widely praised by Coale and teammates — will be on display at OU women’s basketball’s exhibition game Monday against Division II Northeastern State.
“She can shoot now,” sophomore guard Ana Llanusa said. “Now, it’s like, OK, am I going to play off her and have a threshold? Or am I going to stay
close enough so she doesn’t shoot that shot? But then she’s going to go right pastme, she’s so fast.
“I think that’s going to be tough for people to guard this year. It’s definitely tough for me to guard. It’s going to be great to see that this year.”
Pellington, a sophomore from Ontario, Canada, used ball-handling and a lethal first step to shoot .492 from the field in 2017, which helped her become Big 12 freshman of the year. But behind closed doors she toiled as a shooter in one-on-one workouts with Coale.
A right-handed player, she arrived at OU shooting from the left side of her face. Last fall, Coale presented her with two options.
“We can continue to shoot this way and you can over-rep it and be an OK shooter, or you can change it and you’re going to be a lousy shooter for a while, but then you’ve got a chance to be really good,” Coale said. “To her credit, she said I don’t want
to be good I want to be great, let’s fix it.”
Last January, Coale began seeing subtle improvement in Pellington’s motion. It was more fluid. After a summer session at OU and a stint with Canada’s national team, Pellington became less hesitant to pull the trigger.
She’s catching in rhythm and looking to score from the outside first.
“It was something I really wanted to fix. Personally, the ball wasn’t going in.
Something was wrong with my mechanics and that’s what I needed to change,” Pellington said. “It’s different if you’re shooting that way and you’re making baskets. But I wasn’t, so I had to change my mechanics. That was something that was really tough but I was willing to do because I wanted to be a good shooter, and I feel like personally I can say that now.”
The Sooners lost three of their top five scorers from last year’s team, including two in the backcourt (Gabbi Ortiz, Madi Manning)
and another inside (Vionise Pierre-Louis). With seven freshmen this season, OU will rely heavily on Pellington and Llanusa while competing in a rugged Big 12 conference.
With an emphasis on faster tempo and smaller lineups this year, the Sooners will still find themselves in halfcourt sets that were sometimes frustrating for Pellington a year ago. With no evidence of an outside shot, teams left her alone near the perimeter and packed the paint area.
That won’t be an option if Pellington’s shots are dropping.
“I mean, I already had a lot of pieces to my game that I’m already extremely proud about, like my penetration skills, that’s always going to be a given,” Pellington said. “But it was that lack of a shot that kind of made things difficult for me. Now that I’ve got that, it’s created so many more opportunities not just for me but my teammates. So that’s really exciting.”
Oklahoma coach Sherri Coale still marvels at how Shaina Pellington did it last year.
“She averaged what, 13, 14, 15 points a game?” Coale said.
All without the use of a jump shot.
Pellington averaged 13.1 points as a freshman, but is still searching for her first collegiate 3-point make. Last year she attempted and missed all three tries.
Her revamped jumper — which is widely praised by Coale and teammates — will be on display at OU women’s basketball’s exhibition game Monday against Division II Northeastern State.
“She can shoot now,” sophomore guard Ana Llanusa said. “Now, it’s like, OK, am I going to play off her and have a threshold? Or am I going to stay
close enough so she doesn’t shoot that shot? But then she’s going to go right pastme, she’s so fast.
“I think that’s going to be tough for people to guard this year. It’s definitely tough for me to guard. It’s going to be great to see that this year.”
Pellington, a sophomore from Ontario, Canada, used ball-handling and a lethal first step to shoot .492 from the field in 2017, which helped her become Big 12 freshman of the year. But behind closed doors she toiled as a shooter in one-on-one workouts with Coale.
A right-handed player, she arrived at OU shooting from the left side of her face. Last fall, Coale presented her with two options.
“We can continue to shoot this way and you can over-rep it and be an OK shooter, or you can change it and you’re going to be a lousy shooter for a while, but then you’ve got a chance to be really good,” Coale said. “To her credit, she said I don’t want
to be good I want to be great, let’s fix it.”
Last January, Coale began seeing subtle improvement in Pellington’s motion. It was more fluid. After a summer session at OU and a stint with Canada’s national team, Pellington became less hesitant to pull the trigger.
She’s catching in rhythm and looking to score from the outside first.
“It was something I really wanted to fix. Personally, the ball wasn’t going in.
Something was wrong with my mechanics and that’s what I needed to change,” Pellington said. “It’s different if you’re shooting that way and you’re making baskets. But I wasn’t, so I had to change my mechanics. That was something that was really tough but I was willing to do because I wanted to be a good shooter, and I feel like personally I can say that now.”
The Sooners lost three of their top five scorers from last year’s team, including two in the backcourt (Gabbi Ortiz, Madi Manning)
and another inside (Vionise Pierre-Louis). With seven freshmen this season, OU will rely heavily on Pellington and Llanusa while competing in a rugged Big 12 conference.
With an emphasis on faster tempo and smaller lineups this year, the Sooners will still find themselves in halfcourt sets that were sometimes frustrating for Pellington a year ago. With no evidence of an outside shot, teams left her alone near the perimeter and packed the paint area.
That won’t be an option if Pellington’s shots are dropping.
“I mean, I already had a lot of pieces to my game that I’m already extremely proud about, like my penetration skills, that’s always going to be a given,” Pellington said. “But it was that lack of a shot that kind of made things difficult for me. Now that I’ve got that, it’s created so many more opportunities not just for me but my teammates. So that’s really exciting.”
