According to Michigan coach Kevin Borseth, he doesn’t like his team to only shoot 3-pointers. But based on this season, statistics prove otherwise.

“Why does everyone think I just like to shoot threes?” Borseth said after Sunday’s loss to No. 11 Michigan State. “No. We are trying to get the ball around the basket, as close as we possibly can.”

The Wolverines (8-5 Big Ten, 15-10 overall) may emphasize driving the ball to the basket, but it is obvious that they are strongest from behind the 3-point arc. Michigan averages 22 3-point attempts per game and ranks third in the Big Ten in 3-point shooting percentage. Not to mention, the last time the Wolverines shot fewer than 10 attempts from behind the arc was in 2007 — before Borseth was named head coach.

Michigan capitalized, once again, off of its strong 3-point shooting in Wednesday’s 88-76 win over Indiana. The Wolverines shot 50 percent on 26 attempted shots from behind the arc — essentially creating the dividend that won the game for them.

Indiana played the majority of the game in zone defense and because of this, Michigan was able to hit a lot of its shots.

“We worked a lot this week against the zone,” sophomore guard Kate Thompson said. “I think that helped us to find the open shooter and we practiced hitting shots with people in our faces."

Four Michigan players hit 3-point shots against the Hoosiers (3-11, 9-17), but it was junior center Carmen Reynolds who led the pack, shooting 5-of-7 from long range. Thompson followed Reynolds’ lead, making four shots from behind the arc to culminate in a career-high 18 points.

Though the Wolverines are both comfortable and dangerous from the 3-point range, Borseth continues to highlight the need to get the ball into the lane and around the basket. Even though Michigan has shown improvement over this season with its aggression in the paint, the Wolverines still have tournament play lurking ahead of them.

“We definitely need to keep looking into our posts and penetrate — shot fakes, getting into the lane,” Thompson said. “And we need to get it into (sophomore forward) Rachel Sheffer and get some guards posting up as well.”

Michigan proved that it could capitalize off of Sheffer’s aggressive play under the basket against Indiana. She made it to the free throw line 18 times on the night, scoring all of her 15 points from the charity stripe.

“The toughest part in this game was to even catch (the ball) down there, without even thinking about making a move,” Borseth said. “Rachel’s tough, she had some tough looks at the basket and she almost hit a couple of them. But getting to 18 free throws is quite a few free throws for anybody — and of course making 15 of them is pretty big too.”

The Wolverines had 32 free throw attempts against the Hoosiers, making 27. This marked the first game since 2005 that Michigan had over 30 attempts. Aside from Sheffer, junior guard Courtney Boylan was also a key contributor at the charity stripe, as she went 8-of-9 from the line.

As Wednesday night evidenced, Michigan can catch fire from 3-point range. Heeding Borseth's plea to score inside could open outside shots even more for Reynolds and Thompson alike.