February 15 (UPI) Iowa guard Caitlin Clark is on track to break the NCAA women’s basketball scoring record, needing only eight points to overtake Kelsey Plum in career points ahead of a game against Michigan on Thursday in Iowa City.
The fourth-ranked Hawkeyes (22-3) will face the Wolverines (16-9) at Carver-Hawkeye Arena at 8 p.m. EST. The game will air on Peacock.
“It will be special,” Clark told reporters Sunday, following Iowa’s surprise loss to Nebraska. “I think the biggest focus right now is finding ways to grow and finding ways to get better.”
Plum, an All-American guard at Washington from 2013 through 2017, scored 3,527 points for the Huskies and holds the No. 1 spot in the NCAA record books.
Former Kansas guard Lynette Woodard scored the most points (3,649) in women’s college basketball history from 1977 to 1981, but that predated the NCAA’s sponsorship of women’s sports.
Clark, who leads men’s and women’s basketball with an average of 32.1 points per game this season, should pass Plum for the NCAA record in the first half — and maybe the first quarter — of Thursday’s contest.
With five regular-season games remaining, in addition to the Big Ten tournament and the NCAA tournament, Clark (3,520 points) also should pass Woodard within four or five of them.
Clark also trails former LSU player Pete Maravich (3,667), the leading scorer in NCAA men’s basketball history, by only 147 points. She might pass the former Tigers great in the same time frame as Woodard.
Following Thursday’s game, Clark’s Hawkeyes will face Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, and Ohio State to finish the regular season. The Big Ten Tournament will begin March 6 in Minneapolis.
Clark also leads the men’s and women’s collegiate basketball teams in assists (207) and assists per game (8.3). Her 1,005 career assists are sixth in NCAA women’s basketball history, 83 behind fifth-place Tine Freil (Pacific). She has the 10th most career assists in either men’s or women’s basketball.
Clark has scored at least 35 points in nine of her past sixteen games. She scored 40 points twice during that time.
As of Wednesday, the cheapest secondary market tickets for Thursday’s game ranged between $200 and $250.
“When it happens, it happens,” Clark replied when questioned about the scoring record. “It is unlikely to have a significant impact on my life.
“I’m just going to keep going about my business as I have for the past four years and pouring into my teammates every single day and hopefully leading this team to reach our goals. … That’s where my focus lies.”
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