A Sea Of Red

An interesting discussion was brought up on the men's basketball forum. While the question began on who were the top 5 guy shooters, two girls were mentioned. The question is ...

Which of the former lady flame standouts was the better shooter? Sharon Wilkerson or Sarah?

I think that Sharon was. Sarah was more of the point guard type with great ball handling skills and could shoot when called upon to do so. Both Sharon and Sarah had great "all around" skills and complemented each other very well.

Although both girls were outstanding shooters when they needed to be, Sharon did hold a slight edge as the scoring threat and pure shooter. Sarah held her own rather well and at times could put up numbers but during games and practices Sharon could shoot with most any guy.

Shooter----Sharon
Elbow Thrower----Sarah
Teeth Missing-----Sarah....and not because she is from WV.

I agree on all but the last point ... Sharon was the one that lost her front teeth in the '97 conference finals v. UNCG.

I didn't see the twins play too much but the shooter who I think was the best was Kristal Tharp. She didn't have the best ball handing skills but she can definitely shoot the ball.

I say it was Sarah but Sharon was more of a scorer. They were both so good that you could have reversed their roles and had the same results. Sharon could run a team if she had to and Sarah could score buckets all day long if she chose to play that way. They were smart enough to adapt their games to complement each other so they wouldn't compete for playing time. Molly Frazee may need to do that so she can get more PT. She plays the same position as Megan and that makes it tough to see the court. Truthfully this discussion is just a matter of preference to me because they were both good shooters.

I agree with SCAR on his point that if the girl's roles were different it may have changed some people's view but each had that chance at different points in their career when the other was out with an injury. It is interesting to hear different perspectives though.

thesportscritic wrote:I didn't see the twins play too much but the shooter who I think was the best was Kristal Tharp. She didn't have the best ball handing skills but she can definitely shoot the ball.

I agree. Kristal Tharp had an absolute money shot. She was the one of the best three point shooters in history, she IS the best free throw shooter in history, and she had good ball handling skills although she didn't do a lot of point (that was more Daina, as well as Agne Jasinskaite for those of you who remember her)

I definitely remember Agne. She was a good shooter.

Top 5 three point shooters by percentage in Women's history:

Kristi Mercer 88-90 42%
Sarah Wilkerson 97-00 40%
Sharon Wilkerson 97-00 36%
Irene Sloof 98-01 36%
Kristal Tharp 02-05 36%

3 pointers made:

Sharon is #2 with 172 made
Sarah is 5th with 104 made
Tharp is 4th with 151 made


I still give the nod to Sarah even though she didn't take as many or make as many as her sister. Like I said, if the roles were reversed you'd probably get the same results. Tharp is a good shooter though for sure.

Mercer ... now there is a blast fromt he past. She could certainly light it up.

SCAR It is nice to have numbers to back up the claim!! Sarah was the better shooter. However, for my money the best Shooter, Player, Rebounder, Defender was Tracie Wooldridge '84. (However, I do believe they are still waiting to record her first assist!!)
I would also put Rachel Young in the discussion as well.

Just a little biased Haize?

Not at all. She scored over 1k at TWO DIFFERENT DI schools. She could play!! Which also means that with all those points, there weren't a whole lot of assists to be had!!

Very true, Very True. Tracy was nice back in the day for sure.