Caitlin Clark wins Dawn Staley, Nancy Lieberman Awards
The sophomore point guard became the first two-time Dawn Staley Award winner on Friday afternoon.
Iowa guard Caitlin Clark smiles on the court during a basketball game between No. 2 Iowa and No. 6 Nebraska during the Big Ten Women’s Basketball Tournament at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, IN, on Saturday, March 5, 2022. This game marked her fourth forty-point game this season. The Hawkeyes beat the Cornhuskers 83-66.
April 1, 2022
Iowa women’s basketball sophomore Caitlin Clark collected a pair of national awards on Friday night: the Dawn Staley and Nancy Lieberman Award, announced by the Phoenix Club of Philadelphia and the Hoops Hall of Fame, respectively.
Clark became the first two-time winner in the history of the Dawn Staley Award, which has been given out for the past 10 years, with her 2022 honor. Clark also earned the award, given to the nation’s best guard who exemplifies Staley’s skills of “ball handling, scoring, her ability to distribute the basketball and her will to win,” in her freshman season in 2020-21.
“Every winner has been a special player and a special person, but this year’s award is unique – in Iowa’s Caitlin Clark, we have the first ever two-time winner and Caitlin absolutely deserves it,” Dawn Staley said in a statement posted to her website.
“A dynamic offensive player with shooting range the likes of which our game has never seen, Caitlin led the nation in both scoring and assists this season,” Staley added. “She’s an absolute force, someone who is quite literally changing the way basketball is being played. She’s a winner, leading her team to the Big [Ten] Tournament Championship and a shared regular season title. And she’s also a terrific person, the type of player and the type of woman we can be proud to have as an ambassador for our game for years to come.”
Clark was first in the country in 2021-22 with 27 points and eight assists per game, as well as 257 total assists. She also added on 7.9 rebounds per game. The 6-foot guard totaled 863 points in the 2021-22 season.
Clark will be honored with the Dawn Staley Award in a virtual ceremony on April 7.
The Nancy Lieberman Award is given annually to the nation’s top point guard who shows the floor leadership, playmaking, and ball-handling skills of the Hall-of-Famer. Clark is the first Big Ten player in the award’s 23-year history to earn the honor.
Congratulations @CaitlinClark22 you are in the greatest company of all time point #God‘s of the women’s game @Hoophall #LiebermanAward 2022 winner look forward to giving you a proper hi five 👋 https://t.co/19ckQu62k0
— Nancy Lieberman (@NancyLieberman) April 1, 2022
Clark tied a Big Ten single-game record with 18 assists against Penn State on Jan. 25. She also tallied five triple-doubles on the season, leading the nation.
She broke three arena scoring records, with a career-high 46 points at the Crisler Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan, 44 points at Carver-Hawkeye Arena, and 39 points at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Nebraska.
In 2021-22, Clark also earned Big Ten Player of the Year and Big Ten Tournament MVP. She was a finalist for the Naismith, Wade Trophy, and John Wooden Award — given to the nation’s top player. She is an Associated Press, John Wooden, and USBWA first-team All-American.
