NY Liberty Guard Sugar Rodgers to compete WNBA
New York Liberty Guard Sugar Rodgers to Compete in 2017 WNBA All-Star Three-Point Contest
WNBA and WNBPA Team Up to Support Winning Player’s Work in the Community.
Ten-time All-Star Sue Bird of the Seattle Storm and 2014 WNBA MVP Maya Moore of the Minnesota Lynx lead the list of participants who will showcase their range in the 2017 WNBA Three-Point Contest on Saturday, July 22 at KeyArena in Seattle. The contest marks the league’s first long-distance competition at WNBA All-Star in eight years.
The field also features 2017 All-Star Jasmine Thomas of the Connecticut Sun as well as two-time WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year Allie Quigley of the Chicago Sky and 2013 WNBA champion Sugar Rodgers of the New York Liberty.
The WNBA Three-Point Contest will be televised live during halftime of Verizon WNBA All-Star 2017, which will air nationally on ABC at 3:30 p.m. ET. Each participant ranks in the league’s top eight in three-pointers made and three-pointers made per game this season through July 17.
The WNBA, in partnership with the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA), will add a new element to reflect the players’ contributions off the court as leaders on social issues and their active engagement with philanthropic efforts. For the first time, $10,000 will be donated to a charity of the winner’s choice in support of her work in the community.
The charities that participants will represent and compete for are The Moyer Foundation (Bird); Win With Justice, a program of the Social Impact Fund (Moore); The Patrick Quigley Memorial Scholarship (Quigley); Hopey’s Heart Foundation (Rodgers); and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (Thomas).
Bird competed in the most recent Three-Point Contest at WNBA All-Star, reaching the final round of the 2009 event in Uncasville, Conn. She has made the fourth-most three-pointers in league history (770). This season, Bird is tied for second in assists per game (6.8), a category she has led three times. After being voted to start in Verizon WNBA All-Star 2017, Bird shares the league record with Tamika Catchings for most All-Star selections (10).
Moore was MVP of the WNBA’s last All-Star Game, in 2015, when she scored a record 30 points and made six three-pointers. An All-Star starter for the fifth time, Moore ranks 15th on the WNBA’s all-time list for three-pointers made with 432. The three-time WNBA champion has helped Minnesota to a WNBA-best 15-2 record this season.
Thomas, voted a starting guard for the All-Star Game, is averaging career highs of 14.8 points while leading Connecticut to first place in the Eastern Conference. With 38 three-pointers, she has already made more than her previous career high of 35 in 2012. A first-time All-Star in her seventh season, Thomas ranks third in the WNBA in three-point field goal percentage at 45.8.
Rodgers is in her fourth season with New York after winning a WNBA championship with Minnesota as a rookie in 2013. Last season, the 5-9 guard sank a Liberty-record 86 three-pointers, the sixth-highest total in league history. This season, she is averaging 12.7 points and ranks fourth in three-pointers made per game (2.3).
Quigley is having a career year for Chicago, ranking 11th in the WNBA in scoring (16.4 ppg), tied for second in three-pointers made per game (2.4) and fifth in three-point field goal percentage (42.7). She has made 38 three-pointers this season, which is three shy of her career high of 41 in 2014.
The WNBA Three-Point Contest is a two-round, timed competition in which five shooting locations are positioned around the three-point arc. Four racks contain four WNBA balls (each worth one point) and one “money” ball (worth two points). The fifth station is a special “all money ball” rack, which each participant can place at any of the five locations. Every ball on this rack is worth two points.
The players have one minute to shoot as many of the 25 balls as they can. The two competitors with the highest scores in the first round advance to the championship round.
For more information on Verizon WNBA All-Star and game tickets, fans may visit www.wnba.com. The 2017 WNBA regular season runs through Sept. 3.
WNBA THREE-POINT CONTEST PARTICIPANTS
Player, Team Pos. Ht. 3PM Att. %
Sue Bird, Seattle Storm G 5-9 34 81 42.0
Maya Moore, Minnesota Lynx F 6-0 33 82 40.2
Allie Quigley, Chicago Sky G 5-10 38 89 42.7
Sugar Rodgers, New York Liberty G 5-9 39 109 35.8
Jasmine Thomas, Connecticut Sun G 5-9 38 83 45.8
(Statistics through games played on Monday, July 17, 2017)
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