By Matt Turer — mturer@ky3.com
@MattTurer
It’s a pretty site, watching Abby Oliver pull up from deep. Her’s is one of the purest strokes in all Missouri and one that has put the wide-eyed senior on the precipice of history with just a single game to go in her memorable career.
After connecting on two 3s in Thursday’s 80-47 semifinal win over Lutheran North, Oliver needs just five more deep balls to break the Missouri single-season record of 149 held by Chadwick’s Maddie Hursh.
The feat alone is historic, with no other player in MSHSAA history connecting on more than 123 in a season, but equally as amazing is the rate that Oliver’s doing this.
Oliver is connecting on 51.5 percent of 3-point attempts, a percentage only surpassed by Bolivar’s Aleena DeRossett last season. Difference being, DeRossett took 135 3s while Oliver is already over 275 with a game to go. In fact, on the all-time 3-point percentage list, only two of 10 shooters attempted over 200 3s in a season, with the second highest total coming in at 248 and 48.4 percent, done by Atlanta’s Tatum Thurman in 1995-96. When Hursh set the single-season record she attempted a record 405 3s at a 36.7-percent clip, nearly 15 percentage points below Oliver.
Not surprisingly, Oliver isn’t really thinking about passing Hursh. That’s not her job, it’s ours. Instead, the senior’s focus is on completing an undefeated season with a win at 4:30 pm Saturday against Whitfield (25-7), a win that would make Strafford the first undefeated Class 3 girls champion since Oak Grove (31-0) did it in 1992.
“I just try not to think about [the record] during the games,” Oliver said. “It kind of stresses me out more if I do, so I just kind of go out and play my game.”
Steve Frank became the head man at Strafford during Oliver’s freshman season and has had as good a view as any of Oliver’s development from a young role players to a name about to be forever in the record books regardless of what happens on Saturday.
“Abby was a typical freshman,” Frank said Friday inside Father Tolton Catholic’s gym during Strafford’s final practice session in Columbia. “You could tell she was special. That was a given from the get-go.”
Like all freshman, Oliver had to wait her turn and eventually had a true breakout year as a junior, averaging 18 points per game and earning an all-state selection. This season, the College of the Ozarks commit has pushed that to 21.1 points per game.
“This year, the biggest thing, and it’s just maturity, is her consistency,” Frank said. “Every game she comes in and doesn’t have those ups and downs. She’s been steady all year long.
“It’s a blessing to have a kid like that on the floor because you know what you’re going to get out of her every single night.”
Strafford opened its season with an 83-59 destruction of Class 5 Lebanon in a game that Oliver came into after battling the flu and came out of with 42 points on 10 3s after missing her first four shots. Those 42 points came in a matchup against Mizzou commit Kelsey Winfrey, making things all the more impressive and wiping away any talk of a letdown regarding Strafford’s chances at a repeat state title.
“I really push on our kids that we always keep working,” Frank said. “There’s always things we got to work on, and she takes that to heart.”
Frank, the father of sophomores Hayley and Kayley Frank, knows how much his team respects Oliver’s leadership. Strafford has embraced her role as the sole senior. The Indians win a tournament? It’s Oliver accepting the trophy. Team photo? It’s Oliver smack in the middle in Strafford white surrounded by 12 girls in maroon.
“When you talk about leadership, she’s a great leader on and off the floor, and to have a leader like that out there on the floor with my own daughters, she’s the best role model you can have for your kids,” Frank said.
“Her work ethic, everything comes from hard work. It’s just about going in and going to work every day, and that’s what you want for your young kids. So hopefully when they’re in that situation in a few years, they’re able to learn all that because of Abby Oliver.”
Just like last year, Strafford spent its Friday eating Shakespeare’s Pizza, watching the basketball documentary “Heart of the Game” and doing some shopping.
“It’s the same mindset we’ve had all season,” Oliver said. “We’ve just got to take this one game, focus on it and hopefully we’ll reach our goal.”
With a win Saturday, Strafford would also become the first back-to-back Class 3 girls champ since Pembroke Hill in 2005 and 2006.
“This whole season, it would just put a little cherry on top,” Hayley Frank said. “It’s been a lot of pressure and we’ve talked about that. Just to know that we completed a perfect season would feel so amazing to lift that trophy up.”
