Eagle Eye: Ashland University's Hallie Heidemann becomes all-time 3-point queen
ASHLAND — With a quick flick of the wrist and a high-arching shot late in the third quarter at Findlay, Hallie Heidemann became the best three-point shooter in the history of Ashland University women’s basketball.
Heidemann swished the record-breaking three-pointer on Dec. 1 with 52 seconds left in the third quarter. That basket gave the Eagles a 53-52 lead heading to the fourth quarter of what would turn into a 73-61 Great Midwest Athletic Conference victory.
“I totally forgot about it coming into the season,” said Heidemann, a 5-8 fifth-year guard for the Eagles. “But I want to say it was about eight three-pointers away or so, they were telling me. I knew in the back of my mind from then on.
“Then they told me going into (the Findlay) game that I had tied the record and I needed one more to beat it. So, I knew as soon as I made a three in that game.”
The shot from the left wing, which came off a cross-court pass from Maddie Maloney, was Heidemann’s 275th made three in her AU career and broke a tie with previous record holder Taylor Woods.
With one more three against Findlay, three more in a 104-46 win over Tiffin, five in a 94-71 victory over Walsh and three in a 93-57 win over Northwood, Heidemann now has 287 made threes and counting in her career.
As one of just three players with 200 or more career made threes at AU, she’s certain to rise to a club all her own with more than 300 long-distance makes in her career.
“She is able to get that shot off quick,” said Kari Pickens, AU’s head coach for all of Heidemann’s career. “Her footwork is such that she’s able to pull it off the bounce, off a screen. She just can get her shot off really quickly.
“And as efficiently as she scores it, people have to go running by her … to contest it. With one dribble she’s able to step to the side to still pull it. Her footwork is one of the things that makes her so dynamic because she can get it off so quick.”
Before coming to AU, Heidemann was a four-year letter-winner and 1,000-point scorer in high school at Cincinnati McAuley, where she was the girls Greater Catholic League Player of the Year, three-time GGCL first team, first-team All-Southwest District and third-team All-Ohio.
As a freshman at AU in 2018-19, she came off the bench in all 32 games during a 29-3 season. She led the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference with her 44.2 percent mark from three-point range, making 53-of-120 attempts.
She again led the GLIAC during her second year, making 51.8 percent of her attempts (87-of-168), the second best single-season mark in AU history. Heidemann was a second-team All-GLIAC performer in her first season as a starter as the Eagles went 31-0.
During the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, Heidemann again was a second-team All-GLIAC choice and was an All-GLIAC Defensive Team selection. She shot 39.7 percent (56-of-141) from 3-point range for a team that finished 16-9.
In 2021-22, she earned spots on the All-Great Midwest Athletic Conference second team and All-Defensive Team. She sat out a couple of games with an ankle injury, but started 28 times in a 29-3 season, averaging a team-high 29.8 minutes per contest, while making 42.6 percent (66-of-155) of her three-pointers.
In 10 games this season, Heidemann is 25-of-53 (47 percent) from beyond the arc.
Through her 126-game career so far, she has made 287-of-637 (45 percent) three-pointers while never taking more than 12 attempts in a game. She has been incredibly consistent during the last four years, averaging between 11.0 and 12.4 points per game, with a best game of seven made threes on Jan. 18, 2020, at Wisconsin-Parkside.
“It’s a lot of hard work,” Heidemann said about the key to her success. “A lot of just getting in the gym and getting shots up.
“Thinking back to growing up, I just remember being in the gym a lot, doing a lot of training sessions, doing a lot of workouts with shooting coaches and with my AAU coach.
“Now, it just comes down to having a team full of people who can score. That really spreads the other team’s defense out, and when the posts are being collapsed on, the guards just have to be shot ready.”
But Heidemann’s contributions to AU basketball’s 115-15 record during her time on the court go way beyond her three-point accuracy. With 1,326 career points, Heidemann has advanced from 18th to 13th on the school’s all-time scoring list this season. Her career numbers also include 478 rebounds, 287 assists and 174 steals.
“I’ve always loved being that hustle player, the one that gets in there and gets the loose balls and gets the loose boards,” Heidemann said. “Also finishing. I think I’ve gotten more confident with back-to-the-basket finishes.
“And I definitely think I’ve become a better defender in my time here. (The coaches) taught me a lot about on-ball defense, how to turn the ball handler, and then keep them to one side once they’re in the half-court.”
Being an all-defensive player in two conferences would certainly back up that statement.
“She’s been amazing,” Pickens said. “Hallie wasn’t a good defender her freshman year here. Most freshmen aren’t good defenders at the college level but it didn’t take her long. By her sophomore year she was an elite defender for us.
“Hallie, she got so serious about the weight room and I think she got a lot stronger, she got a lot quicker and it paid dividends on the defensive end because now I think she’s one of the best defensive players in our league.”
Beyond the court, earlier this month Heidemann was named as one of 26 finalists for the 2023 Coach Wooden Citizenship Cup. The award recognizes excellence on and off the court, and is presented to athletes who best display character, teamwork and citizenship.
Heidemann achieved her undergraduate degree in May with a cumulative grade-point average of 3.87 as an intervention specialist K-12 major.
Now, the Eagles currently sit at 10-0 overall, 4-0 in the GMAC and are ranked as the No. 3 Division II team in the country. Eighteen games remain in the regular season, and hopefully more in the postseason, for Heidemann and the Eagles to stack up more wins and more three-pointers.
“I would say it’s all a testament to my coaches and teammates,” Heidemann said. “I don’t think I would have been in a position to do this if it wasn’t for these coaches, the success of this program over many years now and the teammates that I’ve gotten to play with.”
This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: Eagle Eye: Ashland University's Hallie Heidemann becomes all-time 3-point queen
