The repetition from that arched line on the hardwood is a ritual at Hawaii Baptist Academy.

Boys basketball coach George Weeks enjoys the benefits of the 3-point line, which was implemented at the high school level in 1986. For his Eagles, it is a means of survival in a world of taller, sometimes more athletic opponents.

HBA went 8-4 to finish second (regular season) in Division II of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu (14-12 overall) with a roster of almost entirely 5-foot-9 and under players. Senior Max Wiemken is roughly 6 feet tall, and averages nearly 21 points per game as what can be loosely defined as a stretch-5. He has made a modest 16 treys.

The Eagles have dangerous shooters across the floor. Justin Ishida has connected on 78 treys and Ridge Wada has 36. Weeks jokes that he implores his team to shoot the open 3 before they turn over the ball, and his statistics support that design.

“We’re challenged when the defense is set, so we want to shoot the ball before they’re set. Some people think we shoot too early in the possession, but why would I wait if I can get a wide-open shot in the first five seconds? If I wait, I have to be more perfect, have the perfect look off a screen and I’m losing the opportunity for more possessions,” he said.

Distance and speed

Weeks has implanted the 3-point shot for his prep teams going back to Menlo, Calif., then with the girls program at Kalani, where the Lady Falcons won the Oahu Interscholastic Association championship in 2007 with Iwalani Rodrigues, Rhianna Farm, Violet Alama, Jamie Higa and Ashlyn Onaga leading the way.

When the seniors graduated, Weeks had a team that averaged 5 feet 3. Kalani operated without a playbook and went deep into the playoffs with a supersonic-level fast break.

“I had about seven kids who could shoot 3s. I had to tell them to shoot. We were running drills, like the 1-7 drill, play for a minute and every time you got a defensive rebound, you had seven seconds to get a shot off. Otherwise, it’s a turnover and we’re going the other way,” he said. “It became a mind-set.”

The Falcons were willing to let the chips fall. Win by 40 one night. Lose by 40 the next.

“That happened. In preseason, we lost to McKinley 80-40,” Weeks recalled. “But Violet was hurt. … It was going to be a tough year, but they really took to it and really blossomed. The ability to shoot the 3 had a big part in it, but really it was letting these young players shoot the ball, because when you’re young, you just want to shoot and play. You don’t want to hold the ball and play a 34-32 game.”

Weeks moved to HBA a few years later, where he continued to emphasize the value of the 3.

He saw players like Micah Mitchell develop into effective shooters — and playmakers. Mitchell went on to score 47 points in a game with 13 3-pointers during his senior year and was a Star-Advertiser All-State Fab 15 selection.

“The spirit of the 3-point shot, you might not be 6-5, you might not be 220 (pounds), but now you have some value,” Weeks said. “It’s kind of like a hitter in baseball. If you can get the bat on the ball and get some hits, your coach will find a place for you in the lineup. If you can hit 3s, it’ll keep you in games.”

Weeks is more of a curator and maestro than a sheer 3-point aficionado. He has borrowed and used anything that helps his teams compete.

“If you look at the evolution of basketball offenses and kind of before we got to this modern era of 3-pointers, you had guys running dribble-drive,” Weeks said.

Analytics made recognition of the 3s value a logical choice. But culture counts.

“If you go to any basketball camp or watch your kids warm up, the first place they go to is the 3-point line. All of us as young players are influenced by the guys on ESPN. You see it’s in vogue every night to shoot 3s. The Golden State Warriors’ umpteen championships are based on shooting 3s,” Weeks said.

More than three decades since the 19-foot, 9-inch arc was added to the prep game, there’s still an attraction to the long-range approach.

“People get enamored with the 3 — it’s so glamorous, and there’s that moment when someone lets a 3 go, and time seems to slow down toward the rim. It’s on the same level as a dunk. Everyone can relate to a guy like Steph Curry. He’s still slight of build, relatively small, and I can’t dunk, but I can be successful like him,” Weeks said.

At ‘Iolani, speed, transition, pressure defense and perpetual motion have been key ingredients to the girls program for years. The Raiders captured the state title this month, their first since 1996. They were a lineup of slashers and passers, but took enough 3-pointers to keep defenses honest.

“The 3-point shot has definitely changed our approach and the way the girls play,” Raiders coach Dean Young said. “Spacing has become even more critical and we prefer 3-point shots or layups. The midrange game is dying off. The back-to-the-basket post has become more rare, which leads me to believe that the game is less physical now.”

Best gunners

Young has seen plenty of sharpshooters over the years.

“The best shooter I was able to help coach was Kylie Maeda,” he said of the former BYU guard. “One game at Kamehameha, she shot 7-for-7 from 3 until we slowed down the scoring based on our lead.”

Longtime writer and girls basketball historian Frank Mauz goes back to the early 1980s.

“The greatest ‘3-point shooter’ in Hawaii prep history was Lynette Liu of Kohala. Of course, her shots were only worth two points in the pre-3-point era,” Mauz said. “Definitely, 3-point shooters are better today. For example, Grace Lyn Hing (of Konawaena), wow, 6-for-7 (against Kahuku). There’s more incentive now, which yields more practice. Also, more chance for college scholarships.”

The best boys shooter from deep in Young’s book was from another decade, Kanoe Winchester.

“He had ice in his veins,” Young said. 

Roosevelt girls coach Joseph Cho has seen it before and after the inception of the 3-point line.

“At first, a 15-foot shot was a distance shot. When the 3 came into play, I remember that the girls were just not strong enough to shoot it. It was not until two, maybe three years passed that I felt comfortable letting them shoot the 3,” said Cho, who coached in Oregon for more than two decades.

“Today, if they can shoot the 3, I encourage it. If they cannot, we’ll work on it, but encourage them to use another strength they may have,” he said. “Nowadays, everyone and their parents believe they can shoot the 3, but I definitely believe kids are better in shooting it than even five years ago.”

His best 3-point shooter?

“Kiana Vierra was pretty good for me (at Kamehameha),” Cho said. “Taylor Tateyama hit 33 3s for us this season. That’s pretty good.”

Sacred Hearts girls coach Richard Kasuya says it’s more preparation for all coaches.

“Scouting the other team’s best 3-point shooters and defending the 3-point line are important parts of the game plan. Zone defenses need to extend out a bit more than the old days and it definitely affects rotations in your man defense,” he said. “I do think more players are comfortable shooting from 3-point range today. Accuracy really varies from player to player.”

What happens when defenses take away the layup and the 3?

“Teaching a 12-15 foot jump shot these days is almost a lost art,” Lahainaluna boys coach Jason Justus said. “For players now, the game in their eyes is either a dunk or layup, or a 3.”

Roots: 3 as utility

For Young, Weeks and many other coaches, the 3-point shot is the easiest way to create spacing and gaps. A center who has limited athleticism and size might use his 3-point skills as a way to neutralize a superior opponent. Hawaii’s relative lack of height makes many a “center” more of a stretch 5. That’s why the iconic Princeton offense cultivated by legendary coach Pete Carril had an impact on coaches from the NBA down to youth leagues.

Instead of nailing his center’s shoes to the block, Carril had his center operate as a hub in a motion offense dependent on wide, deep spacing and backdoor cuts. A center who can pop and hit the straightaway 3 is now valuable, maybe more so than the center who can dunk and block shots.

“That’s actually what we run at HBA,” Weeks said. “I’ve been running that since I was coaching at California at Menlo School.”

“When I first started, I was really a defensive coach. People think it’s all about backdoor and playing slow, but it’s about spacing, fundamentals and taking what the defense gives you. The looping (cut) stuff was meant to set up proper spacing. Carril will tell you it comes down to the ability to dribble, the ability to pass and the ability to shoot,” Weeks said. “Any offense needs those three whether you run UCLA 1-4 high or Princeton’s offense.”