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Caitlin Clark scores career-high 49 points, soars to the top of the NCAA women’s basketball scoring chart
Her career-high 49 points Thursday in Iowa’s 106-89 win over Michigan boosts her career total to 3,569 and past Kelsey Plum’s 3,527
Feb. 15, 2024 10:58 pm, Updated: Feb. 16, 2024 6:20 pm
IOWA CITY — It happened quickly. And anything but quietly. Caitlin Clark, Iowa’s incomparable No. 22, is now No. 1 on the NCAA women’s basketball scoring chart.
It took a mere 2 minutes, 12 seconds Thursday for Clark to score the requisite eight points to surpass Kelsey Plum. The record-breaker was — what else? — a 33-footer from the left wing in transition.
“I don’t know if I could have scripted it any better,” Clark said after the fourth-ranked Hawkeyes outscored Michigan, 106-89, at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. “All I knew was that I was going to shoot a logo 3 for the record.”
Clark finished with a career-high 49 points. That broke the school record (Megan Gustafson scored 48 in 2018). It edged the Carver-record 47 that Hannah Stuelke tallied last week.
A sellout crowd of 14,998 was on hand in house — along with a worldwide audience of Peacock streaming subscribers — to witness the big moment, with Carver ticket prices in some cases soaring into the thousands of dollars.
“The University of Iowa was the right place for this to happen,” Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder said. “They’ve supported women’s basketball here for such a long time.
“Anything can happen here.”
Clark, whose career tally now stands at 3,569 points, has made the extraordinary seem commonplace here for four years.
She reached the NCAA mark in her 126th career game. It took Plum 139 games to score 3,527 in her career at the University of Washington (2013-17).
Clark passed her in a blur.
She converted from short range for the first points of the game, then added a 3-pointer to make it 5-2.
With Iowa trailing 6-5, Gabbie Marshall snagged a loose ball in Iowa’s backcourt and got it to Clark, who dribbled once to pass midcourt, dribbled again to get into scoring range, and fired.
Shortly after the ball hit the net, Iowa (23-3 overall, 12-2 Big Ten) called timeout and Clark was mobbed by her teammates as the crowd went bananas.
“It was perfect,” Bluder said. “Absolutely perfect.”
Clark had 23 points by the end of the first quarter, hitting 8 of 10 shots (5 of 7 from 3-point range) and 2 of 2 from the free-throw line.
The assault included a four-point play at the 3:32 mark.
She followed with five points in the second quarter, 10 in the third and 11 in the fourth. And for good measure, she distributed 13 assists.
“We tried to go box-and-one. We tried to crowd her,” Michigan Coach Kim Barnes-Arico said. “She’s incredible. She’s incredible. She’s incredible. She has changed the landscape of women’s basketball.”
Bluder said that the Wolverines (16-10, 7-7) brought Clark a gift, with each of them penning a congratulatory message.
“Just a classy way for them to handle this,” she said.
Thursday’s mark was the latest in a series of scoring milestones — each lauded by an accompanying commemorative basketball — that Clark has attained.
She passed Gustafson (2,804 points) as Iowa’s career leader Nov. 12 at Cedar Falls.
She hit the 3,000-point mark Dec. 6 at Ames.
She became the Big Ten leader Jan. 31, surpassing Ohio State’s Kelsey Mitchell (3,402).
A native of West Des Moines and former five-star recruit out of Dowling Catholic High School, Clark picked the Hawkeyes over Notre Dame and Iowa State.
She played her first season at Iowa in front of empty gyms, an aftereffect of the 2020 pandemic.
“I look back at tape from my first game (against Northern Iowa),” Clark said. “My hair was a lot longer. I was scrawny, had no muscle definition.”
And yet, it was obvious from Day 1 she was different from anybody else, commonly earning plaudits such as “transcendent” and “generational.”
And when fans were allowed back in arenas, they came in remarkable volume, both home and away.
Clark is eligible to return to Iowa for a fifth season because of an NCAA grant for athletes in the classes of 2021-24, due to the 2020 COVID pandemic.
If she does come back, she will send her final points tally to a number (probably 5,000-plus) that is unlikely ever to be touched.
On more than one occasion Thursday, Carver fans struck up a chant:
One more year! One more year!
“Yeah, I paid ‘em,” Bluder said. “I thought it was a pretty good chant.”
If Clark decides that four years at the collegiate level is enough and declares for April’s WNBA Draft, she is the presumptive No. 1 pick of the Indiana Fever.
As a freshman, Clark averaged 26.6 points per game. That figure rose to 27.0 as a sophomore, then 27.8 as a junior, when she was named national player of the year by virtually everybody.
This season, she is averaging 32.8 points, 6.9 rebounds and 8.5 assists per contest.
Clark ranks No. 6 on the NCAA women’s assists chart, crossing the 1,000-assist mark Sunday.
Not to be lost among her achievements, Clark has never missed a game due to injury. The Hawkeyes are 98-28 during her career, highlighted by an NCAA tournament finals appearance in 2023 and two Big Ten tournament titles.
Though this was the biggie, two scoring frontiers still remain:
* Lynette Woodard (Kansas, 1977-81) holds the women’s college record of 3,649. During Woodard’s era, women’s sports were governed by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women.
* And Pete Maravich (LSU, 1967-70) owns the college record (men’s and women’s), with 3,667 points at LSU, averaging 44.2 points per game in his three seasons.
Kate Martin added 20 points for the Hawkeyes on Thursday. Stuelke scored 13.
And now, we return you to the remainder of your regularly scheduled women’s basketball season.
“It’s been a little distracting, but a good distracting,” Bluder said. “Now it’s time to make our team better.”
The Hawkeyes are at Indiana next Thursday.
“Yeah, this needs to be celebrated,” Clark said. “But now we’re getting into the best part of our season.”
Iowa 106, Michigan 89
At Iowa City
MICHIGAN (89): Chyra Evans 5-7 2-4 13, Elissa Brett 2-3 0-0 5, Lauren Hansen 6-10 2-2 14, Laila Phelia 5-15 2-2 12, Jordan Hobbs 6-11 3-4 16, Greta Kampschroeder 0-3 0-0 0, Cameron Williams 3-5 4-6 10, Taylor Woodson 5-6 3-3 13, Alyssa Crockett 1-5 0-0 2, Elise Stuck 2-3 0-0 4. Totals 35-68 16-21 89.
IOWA (106): Hannah Stuelke 4-6 5-8 13, Molly Davis 2-3 0-0 6, Kate Martin 7-11 2-3 20, Caitlin Clark 16-31 8-8 49, Gabbie Marshall 2-5 0-0 6, Sydney Affolter 0-2 4-4 4, Kylie Feuerbach 0-1 0-0 0, Addison O’Grady 2-3 1-3 5, Taylor McCabe 1-2 0-0 3, A.J. Ediger 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 34-64 20-26 106.
Michigan 22 19 19 29 — 89
Iowa 33 20 28 25 — 106
3-point goals: Michigan 3-19 (Evans 1-2, Brett 1-2, Hansen 0-2, Phelia 0-4, Hobbs 1-3, Kampschroeder 0-3, Crockett 0-2, Stuck 0-1), Iowa 18-35 (Davis 2-2, Martin 4-5, Clark 9-18, Marshall 2-5, Affolter 0-2, Feuerbach 0-1, McCabe 1-2). Team fouls: Michigan 18, Iowa 15. Fouled out: Brett, Stuelke. Rebounds: Michigan 35 (Evans, Hobbs 5), Iowa 29 (Stuelke, Clark, Affolter 5). Assists: Michigan 14 (five with 2), Iowa 25 (Clark 13). Steals: Michigan 5 (Hansen 3), Iowa 3 (three with 1). Turnovers: Michigan 14, Iowa 12.
Attendance: 14,998.
NCAA all-time career women’s basketball scoring leaders
1. Caitlin Clark, Iowa (present), 3,569
2. Kelsey Plum, Washington (2017), 3,527
3. Kelsey Mitchell, Ohio State (2018), 3,402
4. Jackie Stiles, Missouri State (2001), 3,393
5. Brittney Griner, Baylor (2013) 3,283
Comments: jeff.linder@thegazette.com
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