Iowa’s Clark breaks NCAA basketball scoring record
IOWA CITY, IOWA • More scoring records are in sight for Caitlin Clark, but right now the Iowa basketball superstar is looking forward to a break from the chase.
She passed Kelsey Plum as the NCAA women’s career scoring leader Thursday night, putting up a school-record 49 points in a 106-89 victory over Michigan and running her career total to 3,569. Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said it was a relief to have Clark’s pursuit of the NCAA record end.
“It’s been a little bit of a distraction, but a good distraction, right?” Bluder said. “You want these kinds of distractions for your team. But at the same time, it’s time now for us to really focus on making our team better and getting ready for Indiana next week, the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament.”
With Clark having become the face of U.S. college basketball, the spotlight has been on the fourth-ranked Hawkeyes for a year. And from the start of the regular season, Clark’s progress toward the NCAA scoring record turned into the narrative.
“Obviously, getting this record is tremendous and it has to be celebrated,” she said. “There are so many people who have come before me and laid such a great foundation for women’s basketball, and that has to be celebrated, too.”
When the Hawkeyes play at Indiana Thursday, Clark will be 80 points away from Lynette Woodard’s major college basketball women’s record of 3,649 for Kansas from 1978-81. The NCAA doesn’t recognize that record because it was set when the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women governed women’s college sports.
Clark is within striking distance of the overall NCAA mark held by LSU’S Pete Maravich, who finished his career with 3,667 points. He amassed his points in only three seasons (1967-70) because freshmen of his era weren’t allowed to play on varsity teams.
Woodard and Maravich set their records when there was no three-point shot in college basketball.