Clark climbs the all-time scoring list

From staff and wire reports

Caitlin Clark scored 32 points, moving into fourth place on the all-time NCAA Division I women’s basketball scoring list, to help No. 2 Iowa beat Wisconsin 96-50 late Tuesday night.

Clark now has 3,306 career points and passed Baylor’s Brittney Griner (3,283 points) on the all-time list with the first of two free throws with 7:02 left in the first half. Kelsey Plum (Washington 2013-17) holds the record at 3,527 points.

It’s “kind of full circle,” said Clark, who recalled seeing Griner and Baylor play in an NCAA Tournament regional final in 2012 in Des Moines, close to Clark’s hometown of West Des Moines.

“I was still pretty young,” Clark said. “I think that was (Tennessee coach) Pat Summitt’s last game, I do remember that. That’s like my core memory of Brittney Griner. Just to be in the same vicinity of some of those names is super special. It’s cool, they’re people I grew up watching. So it’s special.”

Clark said she has learned to appreciate the historic moments that are growing in her career.

“It’s hard for me to wrap my head around all of it,” she said. “I’m just trying to stay in the moment, enjoy every single second of it.”

Clark, the nation’s leading scorer at 30.9 points per game, missed her first four shots and didn’t have a field goal in the first nine minutes of the game. But she finished 8 of 18 from the field, 6 of 14 on 3-pointers, 10 of 10 from the line, with seven rebounds, five assists and four steals in 33 minutes.

Kate Martin had 16 points and Sydney Affolter had 12 for the Hawkeyes (18-1, 7-0 Big Ten).