Caitlin Clark becomes Iowa’s all-time leading scorer in 94-53 rout at UNI
By Susan Harman
CEDAR FALLS – Caitlin Clark wrested the crown from Megan Gustafson with a play Gustafson would appreciate. Clark spun through the lane with a defender attached, scooped the ball off the glass and into the basket. She was fouled by Riley Wright, and her 3-point play with 5:48 left in the third quarter sent her past Gustafson’s Iowa career scoring record.
“It’s cool and obviously it’s special being able to do it with this group,” Clark said. “Megan reached out to me last night and basically just told me ‘go break, you deserve it.’”
Gustafson also tweeted about Clark surpassing her record.
“She got it on a POST MOVE. @CaitlinClark22 you’re going to make me cry.”
For the record Gustafson finished her stellar career with 2,804 points, and Clark now has 2,813 with a whole season of games to go. Just a couple days ago Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said she never thought anyone would break Gustafson’s mark, that is until they recruited Clark.
Clark’s 24 points were part of her 12th career triple-double and helped lead Iowa to a surprisingly lopsided, 94-53 victory over UNI at a sold out McLeod Center. She had 10 rebounds, 11 assists and drew 11 fouls from the Panthers. Maybe it should be a quadruple double?
“You know it’s so gratifying because Caitlin chose to come to the University of Iowa when she could have gone anywhere in the country,” Bluder said.
“Caitlin Clark is the best player in the country,” UNI coach Tanya Warren said. “There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. You’re not going to stop her; you’re not going to contain her.”
The game itself was not what many expected. The Panthers couldn’t find the basket. At all.
“It’s one of those days,” Warren said. “If you would have told me that we would shoot nine percent from three and 25 percent from the field and 50 (actually 57) percent from the free-throw line I would have called you a liar. I wouldn’t have believed it. But it’s just one of those days.”
The Panthers made just 16 of their 64 shots and only 2-of-19 3-pointers.
“I thought we defended well the first half, but eventually when you can’t put the ball in the hole it wears on your defense,” Warren said.
The first half was marred by 25 fouls and that destroyed any kind of rhythm for either team. At halftime Iowa looked like its poor 3-point shooting was well on its way to a three-game streak. The Hawkeyes made 3-of-16 threes in the first half and only 13 of 32 shots and yet led 40-25 at the break.
But along came the third quarter and Iowa had a reappearance of Gabbie Marshall magic. The fifth-year senior made 2-of-6 threes in the first half, but finished 5-of-10 and scored 17 points. Iowa’s transition game enabled Marshall to get wide-open threes and once she got on track it was a repeat of last year’s tournament run.
Marshall entered the game 0-or-9 from three in Iowa’s first two games, but she’s gone through slumps before.
“I told myself to keep shooting before this game,” Marshall said. “In shootaround I just kept telling myself, ‘you’re going to get hot tonight.’ You’ve got to keep that positive self talk, that’s the only way you’re going to get out of a slump.
“I think going through that adversity (last year) you learn what gets you out of it. And I’ve been trying to focus on that, like into the gym saying ‘it feels off’ and trying to figure out what it is that’s off. But it’s just really keeping confidence.”
Iowa’s three-headed post position tallied 29 points and 13 rebounds. Iowa started Hannah Stuelke, but both Sharon Goodman and Addie O’Grady played more minutes. Stuelke scored 16 points, including a 3-pointer, and created six Panther fouls but again was limited by her own fouls.
Sophomore Taylor McCabe hit two 3-pointers, showing an ability to get her shot off under pressure.
Defensively Iowa was able to limit the Panther star, Grace Boffeli, mostly via her own foul problems. Boffeli, the preseason Missouri Valley Conference player of the year, played 18 minutes and finished with 11 points. She and Stuelke had quite the duel inside when they were both on the court.
“Anytime you can put their best player on the bench with foul trouble, that’s the easiest way to guard them,” Bluder said.
Iowa (3-0) plays a good Kansas State team on Thursday at Carver-Hawkeye Arena. Given the upsets across the nation, the Hawkeyes could be ranked No. 1 although South Carolina has made a compelling case with big victories over Notre Dame and Maryland.