By Susan Harman

It was like Disco Demolition night at old Comiskey Park. Records were being broken left and right in Iowa’s 108-60 destruction of Minnesota Wednesday.

All American Caitlin Clark had a triple double (33 points, 10 rebounds, 12 assists), which is the 17^th of her career. The 33 points sent her past Lynette Woodard for the career scoring record (3,650 and counting) in Division I women’s college basketball.

Woodard played under the AIAW in the late ‘70s at Kansas before the NCAA sanctioned women’s sports. Clark earlier took over the NCAA record held by Kelsey Plum in a win over Michigan.

“Tonight is the real record for me,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “For some reason the NCAA does not want to recognize the basketball that was played prior to 1982. And that’s wrong. We played basketball back then; they just don’t want to recognize that. So congratulations to Caitlin for being the true basketball leader in points tonight. She was extraordinary tonight.”

Clark’s three with 4:27 left was the record breaker.

She also broke the NCAA’s single-season record for 3-pointers after her eight against the Gophers gave her 156 for the season. Her 503 career threes also broke the NCAA record.

Clark is the first D-I men’s or women’s player to score 3,600 points, 1,000 assists and 850 rebounds in a career.

Clark scored Iowa’s first 15 points in a devastating demonstration of her talents. She nailed four 3-pointers and completed a 3-point play.

“It was nice to see a couple shots go down early,” Clark said. “The last two games I haven’t shot it too great from three. I thought we played free and had a lot of fun. It felt like they were compacting the paint a lot, so they’re giving up outside shots, and you know we shot the ball well, which is kind of what we had to do.”

Clark made 12-of-20 shots, including 8-of-13 3-pointers.

Iowa broke its school record and the Williams Arena record for 3-pointers with 22. Twenty-two of its 42 made baskets were 3-pointers.

Gabbie Marshall had her best offensive game since Northern Iowa, making 4-of-7 3-pointers and finishing with 16 points.

“It’s funny because two days ago I was talking to Coach Raina (Harmon), and she was like ‘you have to manifest yourself making threes.’ And coach Bluder talks about that all the time,” Marshall said. “I haven’t really done that. But before this game I told myself I’m going to do it, and I just laid there and saw myself make threes, and it’s just crazy. It actually worked. I’m going to start doing that before every game, just taking time for myself and building up my confidence.”

Marshall eclipsed the 1,000-point mark for her career during the game. She is the 44^th Hawkeye to do so. She is the only Hawkeye to make 200 or more 3-pointers and have 200 or more steals.

“She had some really good looks, and she put them down,” Bluder said. “She shot the ball really well in practice (Tuesday), and she has been getting in the gym so much extra with coach (Tania Davis) and coach Raina. It pays off to get in the gym and keep believing in yourself.”

Kylie Feuerbach drained four threes and finished with 13 points.

Taylor McCabe made five 3-pointers for 15 points in only 12:33 of play.

“She gets in zones too,” Associate head coach Jan Jensen said on Hawkeye radio. “They were playing four feet off her and she’s like ‘you really want to be four feet off me?’”

Iowa’s bench contributed 40 points.

Molly Davis had 11 points, making all five of her shots, grabbed four rebounds and dished five assists.

“They played great and without the ability to score with them it’s really, really hard,” Minnesota coach Dawn Plitzuweit said.

“They have a great offense and are super efficient,” Gophers guard Amaya Battle said.

Because of the way the Gophers deployed their defense and Iowa’s obvious success behind the arc, Hannah Stuelke didn’t get much chance to score inside. She made 3-of-4 shots for six points. Kate Martin was in the same boat and finished with two. Sydney Affolter had nine rebounds and hit 3-of-4 shots for six points.

There is a caveat with this game and both Bluder and Jensen mentioned that Minnesota is really struggling without leading scorer Mara Braun and 6-5 post Sophie Hart. The Gophers had trouble scoring, and their defense was not up to the task. Iowa shot .618 percent overall and .564 percent from three. Many of Iowa’s shots were wide open.

But it’s still good to get on track before Sunday’s game against Big Ten champion and second-ranked Ohio State. Iowa improved to 25-4 overall and 14-3 in Big Ten games.+