What Is a Good Three-Point Percentage in High School?

Short answer: in high school games, 33% from three is the break-even line — it scores exactly as many points per shot as 50% from two. 34–36% is what Division I men and NBA teams shoot as a whole, and 40% on real volume is elite at any level. There is no reliable national high school average to check against, so those targets are built from the college and pro numbers below, not from a high school survey.

Here is what the levels above you actually shoot from three, in games:

The NBA and WNBA rows are league averages from Basketball-Reference (NBA, WNBA). The NCAA rows are total threes made divided by total threes attempted across every team's season stats on NCAA.com (D1 men, D2 men, D3 men, D1 women, D2 women, D3 women). The last column is just the percentage times three.

Why there is no high school average

You will find high school leaderboards, but a leaderboard is not an average: it shows the best shooters whose teams entered their stats, not what a typical player shoots. We could not find any source that pools high school games nationally into one three-point percentage, and a number nobody measured is not worth quoting.

The closest thing you will find is one-team snapshots. A student research paper hosted by Wharton tracked one boys' high school team for a season and found it shot about 30% from three. That is one team over 23 games — a data point, not a benchmark.

So instead of pretending a number exists, build the target from two things that do: math, and the levels above you.

The math: 33% is break-even

A three is worth 1.5 times a two. So a three-point percentage is worth the same as a two-point percentage that is 1.5 times higher:

At 33%, every three you take is worth exactly a point. Below that, you need a team that struggles inside before your threes are helping. Above it, each attempt is beating a good two-point look.

The pros line up almost perfectly with this. NBA teams made 36.0% of their threes in 2025–26 and 55.0% of their twos (Basketball-Reference) — 1.08 points per three, 1.10 per two. The league has pushed threes right up to the point where they are worth about as much as everything else.

High school benchmarks, as a rule of thumb

These are not measured norms. They are the break-even math plus the college and pro anchors above, applied to game shots over a full season:

That last line is worth sitting with. On the NCAA.com Division I list, the best three-point shooting team in the country, Belmont, made 40.4%. The 90th-best made 35.6%. The middle of the pack sat at 34%.

One caveat runs in both directions. The high school arc is 19 ft 9 in, while college and the WNBA use the FIBA arc of about 22 ft 2 in and the NBA's reaches 23 ft 9 in (court dimensions). A shorter shot should be easier, but the players taking it are younger, weaker and less practiced. We have not seen this measured, so treat the table as a starting point, not a verdict.

Volume changes what the percentage means

Two players both shoot 35% from three. One takes two a game, the other takes six.

They are not the same shooter.

The six-a-game player is scoring three times as much from the arc — about 6.3 points a game against 2.1. And six a game cannot all be wide-open looks, so holding 35% on that diet says more about the shot than 35% on two hand-picked attempts.

The percentage is also far more trustworthy. Over a hypothetical 25-game season, two a game is 50 attempts. At that sample size, the 95% margin of error around a true 35% shooter is roughly ±13 points: the same player could finish anywhere from 22% to 48% for no reason at all. Six a game is 150 attempts and about ±8 points. Still wide, but now the number is starting to describe the shooter rather than their luck. More on how many shots before a percentage means anything.

So when you compare yourself to a teammate, or to the table above, ask how many threes the number is built on before you ask what the number is.

Practice numbers are a different scale

Everything above is game shooting: guarded, tired, off a pass that may or may not be in your pocket. An open three alone in the gym is a much easier shot, and your practice percentage should sit well above your game percentage to match.

If you shoot 35% in practice, you are probably not a 35% game shooter yet. How far apart the two should be — and practice targets by zone — is covered in what a good shooting percentage in practice looks like.

How to actually get there

Raising a three-point percentage is mostly a volume and honesty problem.

• Shoot enough of them. One 50-shot three-point block, four sessions a week for twelve weeks, is 2,400 threes. How many shots to take per practice has a way to size it without guessing, and the 100 shots a day challenge is a ready-made month of it.
• Track threes separately. A blended session number hides your three behind your layups. Split by shot type, then by spot — one weak spot is often dragging the whole number down.
• Judge in blocks, not nights. Compare your last 200 threes to the 200 before. A single great session is noise, as this post on telling real improvement from a good night explains.

The tracking is the part people drop, because writing down every shot breaks your rhythm. SwishCall is built around not stopping: tap, call "swish" or "miss" out loud, or prop your iPhone up and let the camera count, and every three is logged by shot type as you go. It is free on the App Store (opens in a new tab).

Quick answers

Is 30% from three good in high school?

It is workable, not good. At 30% each three is worth 0.9 points, the same as shooting 45% from two. Keep taking open catch-and-shoot looks, and keep working to get above 33%.

Is 40% from three good?

Yes — at any level, if it holds over a real number of attempts. Belmont led every Division I men's team at 40.4% in 2025–26. On 20 attempts it means very little; on 150 it means you are a shooter.

What is the average three-point percentage in the NBA?

36.0% in 2025–26, per Basketball-Reference. That works out to 1.08 points per three, almost exactly what NBA teams scored per two-point attempt.

What is a good three-point percentage for a high school girls' player?

There is no reliable national high school figure for girls either. As an anchor, Division I women made 31.0% of their threes in 2025–26, Division III women 28.1%. Around 30% on real volume is solid; 33% and up is good by the same break-even math.

The short version

• 33% from three equals 50% from two. That is the line between a three helping and hurting.
• NBA teams shoot 36%, Division I men 34%, Division I women 31%. No reliable high school average exists.
• As a rule of thumb: 33–35% in games is good in high school, 36%+ is very good, 40%+ on real volume is elite.
• A percentage on 50 attempts can be 13 points off. Count the attempts before you trust the number.
• Practice percentages should sit well above game ones. Track threes separately and compare in blocks.