Iowa women’s basketball star Caitlin Clark put together a mesmerizing first quarter and eventually broke another career scoring record in Wednesday’s game against the Gophers at sold-out Williams Arena.
Clark scored 15 points in the game’s first four minutes and hit yet another three-pointer midway through the fourth quarter to become the highest-scoring major-college women’s basketball scorer of all time.
That basket gave her 33 points in the game and 3,650 in her career, lifting her past Lynette Woodard, who scored 3,649 points for Kansas from 1977-81.
This is, in NCAA terms, an unofficial record. Woodard played in the era before the NCAA sanctioned women’s basketball, when the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women was the sport’s governing body.
The NCAA didn’t take over until 1982. Woodard set the AIAW Division I record; Pearl Moore scored 4,061 while playing from 1975-79 for Francis Marion, an AIAW Division II school.
So, as far as the NCAA is concerned, Clark already owned the all-time scoring record, having passed Kelsey Plum at a home game in Iowa City on Feb. 15.
But that did not detract from the milestone that occurred on Williams Arena’s elevated court. There was some question if Iowa coach Lisa Bluder would pull Clark from a lopsided game, giving her a chance to break this record at home. The No. 6 Hawkeyes play No. 2 Ohio State on Sunday in Iowa City.
Clark entered Wednesday needing 51 points to break Pete Maravich’s all-time college scoring record of 3,667, a mark he set in three seasons when freshmen were ineligible to play.
