[ad_1]
Two weeks after breaking the women’s record, Caitlin Clark became the overall leading scorer in NCAA Division I basketball, period.
The Iowa Hawkeyes star came into Sunday’s game against the Ohio State Buckeyes needing 18 points to break through. “Pistol Pete” Maravich’s record of 3,667 career points, which stood for more than 50 years. And with a free throw in the second quarter, she became the highest-scoring player (male or female) in NCAA basketball history.
When the final buzzer sounded of Sunday’s game, in which the Hawkeyes beat the Buckeyes 93-83, Clark had scored 35 points.
Clark’s total from Sunday sets the new NCAA scoring record at 3,685 points.
After the record-breaking free throw, Clark said the record wasn’t on his mind, “but when they announced it and everyone screamed, that’s when I knew,” he said in an interview with Fox reporter Allison Williams.
Clark said in a postgame interview with Williams that his team “came out and dominated” against the Buckeyes.
“I’m proud of our girls,” Clark said. “It was a fun and dominant win for us. I thought we played very well.”
Clark, in an interview during the Senior Night ceremony, said she is “very grateful” after starting her Iowa career “playing in front of absolutely no one during COVID” and “now it’s impossible to get a ticket to get in.” to our games.”
“I think the people that have made it most special, obviously my teammates, my coaches,” Clark said. “But this isn’t what it is without all of you,” she continued, pointing to the crowd of cheering fans.
“I mean it and I appreciate it,” Clark said. “This is special. I don’t know if they realize what they are doing for women’s basketball and women’s sports in general, but they are changing it. “You are helping us change it.”
“I’ve worn an Iowa jersey for four years,” Clark said, “but like Coach Bluder and Kate (Martin) said, there’s still a lot more fun to be had and we’re not done yet.”
Clark, 22, earned the women’s record on February 15 when she scored her first 8 points in a game against Michigan and surpassed Kelsey Plum’s 3,527 points in a career that ended in 2017. Clark followed up that night to score 49 points, the highest of his career. .
“Honestly, I’m very grateful to be able to be here and make a lot of my dreams come true,” Clark said after the historic game, which Iowa won 106-89.
She scored 33 points against Minnesota on Wednesday to solidify her place at the top of all-time scoring among women playing at major colleges. The record was held by Kansas great Lynette Woodard, who scored 3,650 points. (Woodard played from 1977 to 1981, when women’s sports were governed by the Association of Women’s Intercollegiate Athletics.)
Clark and Woodard had a chance to catch up and celebrate after Sunday’s game.
“It’s just a great moment for women’s basketball,” Woodard said in an interview with Fox’s Williams following Clark’s new record.
“Caitlin is leading the way. As she was cutting, I said, ‘Records are made to be broken, but they are also made to be honored,'” Woodard said. “And thanks to her, my records are being honored.”
Woodard continued: “I came into this game knowing she had 18 points to go. She was 19, but I don’t have playing time anymore. So I hope I’ve passed the baton on to her to move forward and break through that ceiling, and I’m so happy for her.”
The overall record comes in Clark’s final regular season game as a college athlete. Although the 22-year-old senior has another year of eligibility, she announced earlier this week that she would enter the WNBA draft next month.
“I probably won’t realize it until a little later, but I’m going to enjoy my family and my teammates and I’m very grateful to be in this place,” Clark said when asked what emotions she was feeling. before her “official goodbye” to Hawkeye Nation.
His last season has been full of big moments and big numbers: he averaged 32 points per game, but at least four times this season he has accumulated 40 points. The 6-foot guard from West Des Moines also averages over 8 assists per game, and she recently recorded the 1,000th assist of her collegiate career, making her the sixth female in basketball history. university student to do it.
With the scoring record in hand, Clark is now no doubt looking to lead his team, 25-4, to a national title. Last year, they reached the NCAA title game, where they lost to LSU.
Maravich’s men’s NCAA scoring record was 3,667 points, which he set playing for LSU from 1968 to 1970.
After college, Maravich went on to an NBA career in which he was a five-time All-Star. He played for the Atlanta Hawks and the then-New Orleans Jazz and for one season with the Boston Celtics. Maravich died in 1988 in Pasadena, California, at age 40.