Two weeks after she broke the women’s record, Caitlin Clark Was the leading scorer in NCAA Division I basketball, period.
The Iowa Hawkeyes star entered Sunday’s game against the Ohio State Buckeyes and needed 17 points to break through. “Pistol Pete” Maravich’s record of 3,667 career points stood for more than 50 years. And with a free throw in the second quarter, she became the leading scorer in NCAA basketball history – male or female.
Clark, 22, scored eight points against Michigan on Feb. 15 to surpass Kelsey Plum’s career scoring record of 3,527, which ended in 2017. .
“Honestly, I’m just really grateful to be able to be here and make a lot of my dreams come true,” Clark said after Iowa’s history-making 106-89 win.
With 33 points against Minnesota on Wednesday, she solidified her spot atop the all-time career scoring list among women to play in the majors. The record was held by Kansas senior Lynette Woodard, who scored 3,650 points. (Woodard played from 1977 to 1981 when women’s sports were governed by the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women.)
The overall record is Clark’s final regular season game as a college athlete. The 22-year-old announced earlier this week that she will enter next month’s WNBA draft, although she has one more year of eligibility.
His final season was full of big moments and big numbers: He’s averaging 32 points per game, but has topped 40 at least four times this season. The 6-foot guard from West Des Moines also averages 8 assists per game, and she recently recorded her 1,000th collegiate career assist, making her only the sixth woman in college basketball history to do so.
With the scoring record in hand, Clark is now in doubt of leading his 25-4 team to the national championship. Last year they made a run to the NCAA title game where they lost to LSU.
Maravich’s NCAA men’s scoring record was 3,667 from 1968 to 1970 at LSU.
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 then-New Orleans Jazz and one season with the Boston Celtics. Maravich died in 1988 in Pasadena, California, at the age of 40.