The University of Delaware women’s basketball program just ended the week as the 20th-ranked team in the country.  The Hens are 20-3, have won 15 consecutive games, and 32 straight CAA contests.  On Sunday, UD went on the road and beat its biggest rival in an incredibly hostile environment to take a two-game lead in the conference standings.

Yet the squad garnered the most attention this weekend from something that happened during a casual shoot around at the JMU gym on Saturday night.  By now, many of you have probably already seen the trick shot pulled off by Elena Delle Donne, Kayla Miller, Lauren Carra and Trumae Lucas.  The YouTube video, which was filmed by 1290 The Ticket’s own Christine Koren-Motta, has been featured on the Fox 29 News in Philadelphia and ESPNW.com.

In case you have not seen it yet, here it is:

Four balls, one hoop and they all went through the cylinder like heat-seeking missiles locked and loaded on a target.  So who was the brains behind orchestrating this rather unique shot?  None other than the player who became the CAA’s all-time career leading scorer on Sunday.

“I have to say, surprisingly, Elena was the mastermind behind this whole thing,” Miller said.  When asked why she would describe that fact as surprising, the person who has played on the same team as Delle Donne since eighth grade explained that it is a side of the superstar most of the public rarely gets a glimpse of, but that her teammates regularly see.

“She’s really the mastermind behind a lot of tricks and pranks.  She’s very funny.”

Delle Donne said that it came together organically.

“Kayla and I were just goofing around as always, shooting in a tandem,” Delle Donne recalled.  “I decided it would be more fun to add more people, so Trumae and Lauren hopped in.”

The girls each shot at the basket a couple of times and then decided they were going to try and time it so the balls all went in consecutively.  Miller, the always self-assured point guard, yelled for someone on the sideline to record their effort.  Koren-Motta grabbed her iPhone, and then on the first take, the shots all swished through the net in succession.

Thousands of views later, the trick shot has given an already-noteworthy basketball team plenty of extra attention.

“I think it’s great that the video has gotten so much hype,” Delle Donne said.  “I had no idea that messing around in the gym would turn into this.”

Miller thinks the video provided people with a different perspective of her and her teammates.

“I’m happy that the video has gotten out to the people and the networks it has, because it shows the less serious side of us,” Miller said.  “The side people don’t get to see when we’re on the court during games.  It shows that we have a lot of fun together and we really do enjoy doing fun things with one another.”   

For her part, Carra does see the irony in the fact that the video almost received as much pub as her team’s hard-fought 71-64 win over James Madison.    

“It’s actually funny to see all of the attention that video clip is getting, especially with us being ranked and coming towards the end of conference play,” Carra mused.  “It was just something we did to have a little fun and loosen up before the James Madison game and before we know, it has over 2,000 views.”

That being said, Carra did not rule out an encore performance.

“We don’t always get to play around like that before a game, but I’m sure we’ll be working on a couple more shots soon to follow that up.”

They had better.  Their adoring public awaits.