Let's take a look at some of the most successful shooting players and teams from 3-point range in DII men’s basketball
Brindley Theisen, St. Cloud State
Theisen has been the leading 3-point man for the Huskies two years running. Perhaps most impressively, he has shown continued improvement. Last season, he shot 41.3 percent on 208 attempts from downtown, much improved over the 36.5 percent from his previous sophomore campaign. This season, he is four shy of his career high of 86 3s made and shooting 50.9 percent from 3, second-best in the division. That’s the kind of shooter you want to have the ball in the final seconds come NCAA tournament time.
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Joey Witthus, Northwest Missouri State
Senior Joey Witthus has been named player of the week for the second time this season. He averaged 32.0 points per game and 7.0 rebounds. He shot 63.9 percent from the field and 64.3 percent from three-point range in leading Northwest to a pair of MIAA victories.
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Four of the Bearcats five starters shoot 43 percent or better beyond the arc. Junior forward Ryan Welty actually leads the team hitting 51.3 percent of the time, but its Witthus who’s sunk 50.4 percent of his team-high 137 3-point attempts, which gives him the second-best shooting percentage in DII. He’s vastly improved from last year, already breaking his career-best in 3s made after shooting just 36 percent from 3 in 2018. Witthus is really heating up in the scoring column in general, averaging 25.2 points per game in the nine games he’s played in 2019.
Mikkel Kolstad, Nova Southeastern
The Sharks put up over 100 points per game, and Kolstad’s sharpshooting certainly helps maintain that pace. Kolstad leads DII basketball hitting 58.4 percent from beyond the arc. The junior guard was on fire in January, hitting 66 percent of his 3s before being blanked against Florida Southern to open February. The Sharks lost that game — just their second of the season — if you were curious about how important his long-range shooting is to their success.
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Amariontez Ivory, Lincoln (MO)
The Blue Tigers are having a breakout season, their 15-wins already matching last season’s total. They are also one of the best 3-point shooting teams in the land, and Ivory leads the way. The senior guard has hit 66 3s this year at a 49.6 percent rate, and he may just be at his hottest shooting yet. He opened February sinking a season-high eight 3s on just 11 attempts and has hit 14 of his last 19 rolling into the home stretch.
Dalton Bolon, West Liberty
There are certainly some better 3-point shooters percentage-wise in DII basketball. But Bolon is leading the second-best 3-point shooting team in DII basketball (converting 43.4 percent of the time) with 64 bombs from long range. Oh, did we mention he’s doing it essentially with one eye?
Bolon suffered an injury earlier this year and has been playing with an eye patch this season. He’s still converted 64 of 155 from beyond the arc at an impressive 41.3 percent rate. He leads the top-scoring Hilltoppers with 21.6 points per game, proving his breakthrough freshmen campaign was no fluke.
Shout outs:
Top teams: Nobody hits more 3s per game than Arkansas Tech, averaging 13.6 per night. The Wonder Boys 272 3s made are best in the division and their 717 attempts are second only to West Texas A&M. Their 37.9 percent success rate doesn’t crack the top 50 in DII basketball. The top honors in 3-point percentage go to undefeated Northwest Missouri State, which has sunk 246 of 558 3s for a 44.1 percentage. That’s just .09 percentage points off Division I Lehigh, who leads all levels at 45 percent 3-point shooting.
Will Adler, Arkansas Tech: Someone has to lead the attack for that team that drops the most 3s a night. Adler is the man, sinking 82 3s at a 42.9 percent rate. He is actually just as accurate from behind the arc as he is at close range, shooting 44 percent from the field. Adler seems most comfortable from further away.
Luke Rudy, Christian Brothers: The sophomore swingman has hit just 52 3s this season for the Buccaneers, but 14 of them came in the same game, a 44-point performance in which Rudy connected on 14 of 22 3s. That broke the Gulf South Conference record set by Valdosta State’s Beau Justice (12) just a few days prior.
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Desmond Mitchell-LaFlam, Georgia College: The redshirt-senior isn’t a 3-point specialist by any means, but he did go 7-for-7 from downtown on Jan. 26, the best single percentage performance in DII this season. In fact, he went 3-for-3 the game prior. Those 10 3s in two games are almost half of his entire season total of 26.
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