Caitlin Clark Sets All-Time Scoring Record
It was always going to be the logo three.
Iowa’s Caitlin Clark was just eight points from becoming the NCAA’s all-time women’s basketball career scoring leader heading into Thursday’s game against Michigan at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.
It was going to get done, quickly, and the odds-on favorite shot to do it was going to be a 3-pointer from one of the logos on the court.
And so it was, with 7:48 left, a 35-foot missile from right around the “O” on the Mediacom Court logo on the left side of the court.
It was Clark’s eighth point of the game, Iowa’s eighth point of the game, and the 14,998 fans who crammed Carver-Hawkeye Arena shook the old building with the celebration of another piece on the historic resumé of a legendary player who has done everything and seemingly can do even more.
Clark stacked history on top of history in the Hawkeyes’ 106-89 win. She finished with 49 points, a new single-game program scoring record. She tied a career high with nine 3-pointers, but it was the second one that was the perfect way, for her, to make her mark.
“It was absolutely perfect for her to go over and reach this record with the logo three,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said.
“I mean, you all knew I was going to shoot a logo three for the record,” Clark quipped.
Kelsey Plum’s scoring record of 3,527 points was going to fall to Clark, it was just a matter of when. She didn’t do it in Sunday’s loss at Nebraska, but it was set up to go down in front of the home fans, and it didn’t take long.
There was the layup nine seconds into the game. Then a 3-pointer 30 seconds later.
And then the signature.
Bluder’s plan was to call a timeout as soon as Clark made the shot, but Michigan got the ball back into play before Bluder could make the signal. Finally, when Iowa’s Molly Davis grabbed a rebound after a Michigan missed shot, Bluder got her timeout, and the noise of the night just got louder.
Clark recounted the shot, saying, “I think I kind of stepped back to my left a little bit and was able to get it off. It went in and I celebrated. I honestly thought Coach Bluder was going to call the timeout before I had to go play defense. But she didn’t and I had to go play defense.”
“We didn’t really talk in the timeout,” Bluder said. “We all kind of sat in our thoughts, and I just wanted her to have some space to think about what she'd accomplished, and just to enjoy the moment.”
Bluder smiled.
“Usually that's not me,” she said. “I don't burn timeouts for anything.”
There was still the matter of beating Michigan. The Hawkeyes, who needed to keep pace with first-place Ohio State and second-place Indiana in the Big Ten standings, couldn’t afford another loss.
They weren’t losing this one.
Clark was in control. Of Iowa’s first 15 field goals, nine belonged to her and she had assists on the other six.
The Hawkeyes led 33-22 at the end of the first quarter, 53-41 at halftime, and kept pouring it on the Wolverines. Iowa shot 53.1 percent for the game, and led by as much as 24 points in the fourth quarter.
Clark still had more history to make. And when she finished the night, she had passed Megan Gustafson’s 48-point game in 2018 as the new single-game scoring record. She also passed teammate Hannah Stuelke’s 47-point arena record set last week.
“Hannah said she passed the torch to me,” Clark said.
Clark was 16-of-31 from the field, 9-of-18 in 3-pointers. She was joined in double figures by Kate Martin, who had 20 points, and Stuelke, who had 13.
Clark had 13 assists, her 58th career double-double.
The Hawkeyes get a week off before playing at Indiana next Thursday. Bluder said on Wednesday they would get the weekend off, the first extended break since Christmas.
They left history in the rear-view mirror.
