Edward Little’s Rachel Penny competed in a national 3-point shooting competition during the Run 4 The Roses basketball tournament in Louisville, Kentucky, earlier this month. Submitted photo

AUBURN — When Rachel Penny signed up for the Run 4 The Roses 3-point shooting competition, her goal was to make 20 out of 25 3-point shot attempts. 

“My goal the whole time was 20,” Penny said, “but I couldn’t get there, unfortunately.” 

Penny, a rising sophomore at Edward Little High School, came close to her goal, making 19 of 25 attempts in the final round, good for the best single round of any girl in the entire competition — regardless of age. 

The sharpshooting Auburn native traveled down to Louisville, Kentucky, with her AAU team, the Maine Basketball Club, and competed against roughly 700 girls from over 1,000 different teams in the competition.  

She won the competition for the Class of 2025, but her score of 19 out of 25 would’ve beaten the Class of 2023 and Class of 2024 champions. 

The Red Eddies shooting guard made 14 attempts in her first round, which she knew wasn’t her best effort. 

“I was pretty mad about my first round, because I didn’t shoot well and I didn’t think I would make it into the finals,” Penny said. 

She made it into the finals, though, and she shot the lights out in front of Ari Chambers, a renowned WNBA journalist who hosted the event. 

Penny’s score of 19 out of 25 puts her in elite company. Only six NBA players have made more than 19 out of 25 shots in the history of the league’s annual 3-point competition during All-Star Weekend: Craig Hodges twice, Mark Price, Jason Kapono, Kyrie Irving, Stephen Curry and Devin Booker. 

But Penny’s coach, longtime MBC coach and first-year Edward Little girls basketball coach Kristina Blais, knew Penny had an incredible shooting performance in her. 

“I knew she was going to shoot the highest in that competition,” Blais said. “Just the way that she was preparing for the competition, she’s really starting to take the game seriously. Her preparation for each round was incredible.” 

LEARNING TO SHOOT 

A younger Rachel Penny would’ve never imagined that she could be the best shooter in a room of 700 shooters. 

When she first began playing basketball, Penny looked nothing like the player she is now, according to Blais. 

“It has been probably about five years now that I’ve been coaching her,” Blais said. “When she was younger, she would jump five feet forward and do this weird crinkle thing with her guide hand after she shot. We had to break those little-girl habits.” 

Penny agreed with that assessment.

“If you ask anyone, when I first started playing basketball, I could not shoot at all,” Penny said. “(Blais) changed everything. She was just teaching me how to shoot a proper jump shot in general.”  

But Blais thinks Penny deserves all the credit. She’s the one that put in countless hours of practice, perfecting her form and becoming a knockdown shooter. 

“She can say it was me all she wants, but I give her all the credit,” Blais said. “I taught her the tools, but she was the one that went out there and made it happen. We worked for hours at playgrounds on her shot, but she’s the one that takes it to a new level.” 

“She has completely bought into what it takes to be a knockdown shooter,” Blais added. 

Penny makes 500 3-pointers a day, which has allowed her form to become consistent and reproducible. 

“Once I got my form figured out, I realized the most important thing in terms of keeping it consistent is working on it a lot and shooting all the time,” Penny said. “I think my form is probably the best part of my shot. I’ve tried to learn to keep it the same every time, and I think I’ve gotten it pretty good.” 

WHAT’S NEXT FOR PENNY? 

The soon-to-be high school sophomore already has her sights set on higher-level hoops. 

“I would love to play basketball in college,” Penny said. “I just want to play at a school where I have a major that I would want to continue in.” 

And Blais, Penny’s new head coach at Edward Little, thinks the sky is the limit for her. 

“There’s not many kids anymore that will dedicate their lives to the sport like she will. Whatever she wants to make of it she can make of it,” Blais said. “With her work ethic and her love for the game and her drive, I think her career could take her wherever she wants to.” 

Blais has seen Penny’s improvement over the years, and she thinks Penny will only continue to break out. 

“She has added so many key pieces to her game,” Blais said. “She’s worked super hard on adding the drive to her game. Her passing is also really good right now, and it’s opening up the shooting more for her. Her game has opened up a lot since she’s decided that she can take it to the rim.” 

“Yeah, I think it could be and I think it will be (a breakout year for Penny),” Blais added. “But my only expectation is for her to be a leader and do things the right way, and I think the rest of her game will just come.”