OGDEN -- Guess which Weber State men's basketball player has the best 3-point shooting percentage on the team?
Damian Lillard?
Nope. However, he has sunk the most 3-pointers on the team, making 51-of-139 attempts from behind the arc.
Nick Hansen?
Not the answer either, as the senior has made 44-of-133 3-point attempts.
Lindsey Hughey?
While the junior has been playing very strong lately, his 19-of-53 performance this season from downtown is not the highest percentage either.
Kyle Bullinger and Franklin Session have made their share 3-pointers as well, but there is still one player who has made 67 percent of his 3-point attempts.
The correct answer is post player Darin Mahoney.
"If I just keep shooting one every four or five games I might be able to keep it up," Mahoney said.
The sophomore, who averages a little more than 16 minutes off the bench per game, has made four of his six 3-pointers this season. The most memorable one came as the halftime buzzer sounded in WSU's game against Utah. Mahoney's bank shot from a few steps behind the arc pulled WSU to within 41-38 at intermission. WSU eventually won that game 83-76.
"That one probably should have been a miss," Mahoney said. "It was just kind of a crazy play. Sometimes you get lucky like that, but it did help us get momentum for the game."
So should the Wildcats (13-7, 7-1 Big Sky), who start the second half of the Big Sky Conference season tonight against Sacramento State, draw up some plays that end with Mahoney shooting a 3.
"Mo takes good wide-open shots," said a smiling WSU coach Randy Rahe when asked that question. "We've got some things for our four-man where we can get them open looks and he's taken advantage of that. He's started to get a little more aggressive and we've asked him to shoot the ball a little more."
The sophomore says his confidence is higher on the offensive end of the court than it was at the beginning of the season, and he needs to take advantage of that.
"That's the kind of stuff the team needs me to do," Mahoney said. "I won't create too much on offense for myself, but if my teammates get me an open shot I need to be ready to shoot that as well."
Mahoney's attention to offense is just one of the ways the Wildcats are playing differently than they did earlier in the season when WSU first played Sacramento State. WSU won the first meeting against the Hornets (7-14, 1-7 Big Sky) 80-65 in Sacramento, and is hoping to complete the sweep tonight.
While Mahoney may average just 2.8 points per game, it' hasn't been on the offensive end where the Wildcats have needed him most. Mahoney is known as a scrappy player, one who gets offensive rebounds and steals, dives on the floor after lose balls and takes charges.
"He knows his role, which is to defend and rebound and play hard and he does all those things," Rahe said. "We asked him last summer to become an offensive threat and he's such an unselfish kid who rarely looks at the basket, but the last two or three weeks he's been trying to take advantage of opportunities. It's good for him and he needs to be a threat because he can be a threat."
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