Caitlin Clark sets NCAA women’s basketball scoring record with 3,528 career points | Top Vip News

Making history has become almost routine during Caitlin Clark’s last year. With rabid Hawkeyes fans cheering her on at home and on the road, she has overcome offensive markers with the same unique style that sees her able to rise with ease from nearly half-court. On Thursday against Michigan, Clark set her most significant record yet. Fittingly, the shot that cemented her stature came just to the left of the half-court logo. “Everyone knew she was going to photograph a logo-3 for the record. Come on,” Clark said afterward.

It didn’t take long to cement his place in history. On Iowa’s fifth possession, with 7:48 left in the first quarter, after Clark pushed the ball up in transition, she rose from a spot that only she seems to rise from. She converted the deep three-pointer to become NCAA women’s basketball’s all-time leading scorer with a total of 3,528 points. Clark unseated former Washington star Kelsey Plum, who scored 3,527 points between 2013 and 2017.

Euphoria broke out inside Carver-Hawkeye Arena as Clark turned to the sold-out crowd and seized the moment, flexing and cavorting down the sideline. Iowa called a timeout shortly after, though not before Clark had to defend a possession, which came as a surprise to the newly created record holder. However, during the break, Clark’s teammates harassed his star. Hawkeyes coach Lisa Bluder kissed Clark’s left cheek as fans showered the all-time great with a fitting ovation. “I’m just grateful more than anything else,” Clark said. “I’ll be proud, proud of the way I worked for this more than anything.”

After scoring 31 points Sunday against Nebraska, Clark needed just 8 points to top Plum. The expectation entering Thursday night was that Clark would overcome that. More unexpected, however, was that Clark ultimately scored 49 points, a career-high and Iowa program record, in the Hawkeyes’ 106-89 victory. “She picked a great night to do it,” Bluder told NBC Sports afterward. “What she has done to improve our program and women’s basketball nationally is spectacular.”

Clark had been held scoreless in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s upset loss to the Cornhuskers. He made sure that the beginning of Thursday would be very different from the end. When Clark was introduced during Iowa’s opening lineups, thousands of fans, many of whom arrived hours early, pulled out their phones to record the introductions. Hopefully no one was late or they would have missed the headline. Clark scored a layup on Iowa’s first trip down the court and hit a 3-pointer on its second possession. He said he then got a little tired and needed to catch his breath. However, by the Hawkeyes’ fifth offensive possession, she was ready to outrun Plum. He ultimately scored 23 points in the first quarter, half of his previous career high (46).

The last time Clark faced Michigan, in January 2023, he finished with 28. This time, he had it at halftime, proving once again why the Wolverines are among his favorite opponents. In four previous meetings against them, he averaged 34.8 points, the most of any foe he has faced at least three times. However, Clark hasn’t just surpassed Michigan. With great magnificence and consistency, he averages at least 20 points per game against each of his conference opponents. She also lights up seemingly every enemy she faces in non-conference games. Only once in her 126 games at Iowa did Clark score fewer than 10 points: an 8-point outing against Northwestern in her 10th game as a freshman. She now has 3,569 points in her career.

Since his first competition with the Hawkeyes, Clark’s impact has been tangible. In his debut he scored 27 points in 26 minutes. Although her first three-pointer was blocked, Clark has made more than 1,200 three-pointers throughout her career, many of them from distances never before attempted in women’s soccer. Against Michigan State earlier this season, she became the first Division I player in the last 25 years to score 40 points and score the game-winning goal in the same game, rising for the decisive shot of the night with both feet touching the middle of the court. Hawk eyes logo.

“Caitlin has ice in her veins and everyone knows it,” Bluder said after the victory.

For four seasons, Clark’s offensive arsenal: a constant barrage of off-the-dribble pull-ups from the top of the arc, step-back jumpers from the wing, sliding dribble moves that create opportunities for layups, precise no-look passes. , and of course, deep 3s – Has captivated Hawkeyes fans and even casual spectators of the sport. However, during Clark’s master classes, his classmates were rarely surprised.

“Nothing surprises me right now,” sixth-year forward Kate Martin said after Clark recorded the first triple-double of 41 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds in an NCAA Tournament game last March, a performance prolific player who led the Hawkeyes to their first Final Four since 1993.

Beyond recording the only 40-point triple-double in NCAA history, Clark is the only player in the NCAA era to record 3,000 points, 750 rebounds and 750 assists. On his way to leading Iowa to two conference championships, he has scored more 30-point games than any player in the last 25 years. In November, she became Iowa’s all-time leading scorer and, in late January, also the Big Ten’s all-time leader. Her single-game program record of 49 points on Thursday eclipsed former Hawkeye center Megan Gustafson’s 48-point outing in March 2018.

“I think the best thing is the names I get to hang around with,” Clark said after setting the Big Ten record in a January win at Northwestern. “Those are people I grew up watching, especially Brittney Griner, Kelsey Mitchell, they’re really great players, people who still play our game at the highest level, people you watch night in and night out. So it’s special for me to be in the same area as them and obviously I have a lot of really good teammates that have allowed me to do my thing.”

Plum said in early February that she was excited that Clark surpassed her in the record book.

“To be honest, I’m very grateful to have passed that baton,” Plum said. “Very happy for her.”

Although Clark has now set the NCAA record, she has yet to break Lynette Woodard’s women’s college basketball career scoring record of 3,649 points, set at Kansas in 1981 in the AIAW era. If Clark maintains her current scoring average of 32.1 points per game, she will likely pass Woodard at the start of the Big Ten tournament in early March. Although she would not appear in the record book, Clark could surpass Pete Maravich’s all-time NCAA scoring record (men’s or women’s) of 3,667 points before she finishes the season.

Wherever Clark has gone this season, a fervor of wonder has followed. In October, the Hawkeyes played an exhibition game inside Kinnick Stadium, drawing 55,646 fans, the largest crowd ever for a women’s basketball game. Along the way, opposing fans stand alongside Iowa fans hours in advance, waiting to enter the arenas to watch her warm up. Of Iowa’s 32 regular season games, 30 are sold out or have set arena attendance records for women’s basketball; the only exceptions are Iowa’s neutral games in a Thanksgiving tournament.

Clark has also produced booming television ratings. For example, a recent Saturday primetime game against Maryland averaged more than 1.5 million viewers, making it the most-watched women’s college basketball game ever broadcast on Fox. Iowa’s timely thriller extra against Ohio State in late January averaged nearly 2 million viewers, on NBC and Peacock, becoming the most-watched regular-season women’s college basketball on any American network in more than a decade. Last year’s Final Four, featuring the Hawkeyes, was the most-watched Final Four weekend in ESPN history, averaging 6.5 million viewers. The national championship between Iowa and LSU attracted 9.9 million viewers, double the number in 2022 and the most-watched NCAA women’s basketball game in history.

After beating Michigan, Iowa held an on-court ceremony for the star, who will have his jersey retired sooner rather than later in the Carver-Hawkeye rafters. Clark’s teammates wore t-shirts with the slogan “if you break it, you own it” on the front and Clark No. 22 on the back. Copies of the Des Moines Register were distributed with the headline “Unmatched.” A tribute video aired in the arena with praise from family, coaches and teammates, both past and present. A commemorative dance was also given. At one point, the sold-out crowd (no one had left) serenaded Clark with chants of “one more year.”

Clark has a choice ahead of him on that, of course. While she will increase her scoring total over the remainder of the season, the 6-foot senior will face a decision that will shape her future: enter the upcoming WNBA Draft, where she is the presumptive No. 1 pick, or return to Iowa for a fifth season, taking advantage of a COVID-19 eligibility rule. If she chooses the former, she will face the best competition in the world and begin another potentially historic career. If she chooses the latter, she will create even more distance from her peers in the record book.

No matter your decision, the mania will continue.

“I think she’s the most phenomenal basketball player in America,” Bluder said after Clark and the Hawkeyes defeated previously undefeated South Carolina in last year’s Final Four. “I just don’t think there’s anyone like her.”

Required reading

(Photo: Matthew Holst/Getty Images)