IOWA CITY, Iowa — Caitlin Clark wasted no time Thursday night in becoming the all-time leading scorer in NCAA women’s basketball history, taking less than three minutes of game clock to pick up the eight points she needed to break Kelsey Plum’s record.
The University of Iowa star who has brought unprecedented attention to women’s basketball surpassed the record with her signature shot: a 35-foot 3-pointer that hit nothing but the bottom of the net.
And she didn’t let up from there. The 6-foot senior guard from West Des Moines finished with a career-high 49 points, tied her career best with nine 3-pointers and had 13 assists for her 58th career double-double in No. 4 Iowa’s 106-89 victory over Michigan.
The Hawkeyes, last year’s NCAA tournament runners-up to LSU, improved to 23-3 overall and 12-2 in Big Ten play while dropping the Wolverines to 16-10, 7-7. Iowa, tied with Indiana for second in the league standings and one game behind Ohio State, bounced back from Sunday’s road loss to Nebraska.
Hawkeyes coach Lisa Bluder took Clark out of Thursday’s game with 1:46 left, shortly after she made her final 3, and she went to the bench to an ovation from the sellout crowd at Carver-Hawkeye Arena.