Caitlin Clark broke the NCAA women's basketball scoring record two weeks ago, but just Wednesday she became the all-time leading scorer among women's college basketball players.
The Iowa State star passed Lynette Woodard's 3,649 career points with Kansas, erasing a major asterisk on the NCAA's all-time scoring list. She also moved to just 18 points shy of breaking Pete Maravich's mark of 3,667 points for the NCAA record among men and women.
Averaging more than 30 points per game, Clark is on pace to pass Maravich in her next game, Iowa State's regular-season finale against No. 2 Ohio State on Sunday.
Minutes before passing Woodard, Clark set another official NCAA record, hitting her 155th 3-pointer of the season to break the single-season mark previously held by Idaho's Taylor Pierce in 2019.
The performance was part of a triple-double with 33 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds for Clark in Iowa's 108-60 win over Minnesota. She entered the match needing 32 points to match Woodard and reached about the halfway mark in four minutes.
Woodard scored between 1977 and 1981, a time when women's college basketball was governed by the Association of Women's Intercollegiate Athletics. The NCAA did not officially sanction women's college basketball until 1982 and does not recognize any players or statistics prior to that year.
So, for decades, Woodard stood above every college basketball player, but was never recognized as the greatest scorer of all time. As one historical observer told Eden Laase of Yahoo Sports:
“When you don't know the history makers, it fools them and the current players,” Elizabeth Galloway-McWetter said. “One of the greats of our game is always kept in the shadows. And I fancy Caitlin [Clark] You want to know who the record is that you're really chasing.
Clark has finally put that record book inconsistency to bed, with plenty of work to do over the final few games of her Iowa State career (assuming she doesn't reject the NBA for a fifth year of college ball).
The remainder of Clark's season consists of the Hawkeyes' game against Ohio State, the Big Ten Championship and the NCAA Tournament. With Iowa State currently sitting in third place in the Big Ten and on track for a double bye into the conference tournament, that leaves up to 10 games left for Clark to play.
“Food ninja. Friendly thinker. Explorer. Entrepreneur. Zombie junkie.