MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — A deep three to crack the seal. Another from the “M” at half court. One more on a quick-pull up soon after. But every time her shot passed through the net in Iowa’s 108-60 win over Minnesota on Wednesday, Caitlin Clark didn’t crack a smile.
At least not until the fourth quarter. At that moment, she had drilled her last three of the game and trotted back to the backcourt just seconds before, ready for the substitutions waiting on the sideline to take her out of the game. But upon recognizing a Golden Gopher turnover put the ball back in Hawkeye hands, she burned her last bit of energy hustling down to the left wing for one last try.
Demanding the ball with her voice and the aggressive shaking of her hands, she got it — and let it fly. And although it missed quite short, Clark laughing and walking away, the bad miss by a shooter’s standards didn’t matter.
She made eight of them before that one.
Four of those came in the first quarter alone — a quarter in which Clark finished with 15 points. Throughout the night, she simply watched them drop through the nylon and jogged back. And if she ever believes she’s the best on the court, she doesn’t show it. A next possession mentality.
At least most of the time.
For example, Clark gave a little celebration, one of her few of the night, with a three celebrated by three fingers in the air as she shuffled back and faced the Minnesota crowd — who cheered lightly, used to and maybe even tired of the three-pointers raining down on Williams Arena, no longer as explosive as it was when she made all of those in the first.
By the end of the night, Clark compiled yet another triple-double of 33 points — on 12-of-20 from the field and 8-of-14 from deep — with 12 assists of Iowa’s 30 in the night and 10 rebounds.
Tonight made Clark the Big Ten leader in career three-pointers made and NCAA leader in single-season three-pointers made.
It also made her the all-time women’s college basketball leading scorer, surpassing Lynette Woodard’s 3,649 career points in the AIAW.
“I just want to make sure we acknowledge Lynette’s accomplishments in the game of basketball,” Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder began. “But congratulations to Caitlin for being the true basketball leader in points tonight. She was extraordinary tonight I believe.”
And it puts her 17 points shy of Pete Maravich’s NCAA scoring record, men’s or women’s, with one game to play in the regular season.
“It’s super special just to be in the same realm of a lot of these really talented players that have done a lot of really great things for not just men’s basketball or just women’s basketball, but just basketball in general,” Clark said, noting people in high school would tell her to check out Pistol Pete’s highlights on YouTube.
But it wasn’t all number 22 tonight. The Hawkeyes collectively shot 22-of-39 from deep for a whopping 56 percent beyond the arc.
“I thought we really pushed in transition, and it felt like they were compacting the paint a lot, so they were giving up outside shots,” Clark said of the team’s performance from downtown tonight. “We shot the ball well, which is what we had to do.”
Guard Gabbie Marshall hit four threes in the evening as she amassed 16 points, knocking her first one down for her 1,000th-career point.
“[I’m] really, really proud of [Marshall] and really our whole team and how we shot the ball tonight,” Bluder said. “It was extraordinary how we shot the ball.”
As the Golden Gophers were repeatedly lost in defensive rotation, Marshall was there to support Clark from beyond the arc. And as she drilled them, the two exchanged points to one another right after that silently said “good pass” and “good hit.”
Likewise, fellow guard Kylie Feuerbach also lit the rim up from deep after knocking down three against Illinois on Sunday, finishing tonight with four of them for 13 points — a bigger offensive volume than usual but a much-needed spark off of the bench as the Hawkeyes move forward into the postseason.
“It can’t just be me all the time,” Clark admitted. “I think my teammates have been tremendous over the past few games, and we’re going to need that going forward, so I’m really proud of them. I’m really happy for them because they put in a lot of time.”
And reserve guard Taylor McCabe, seeing her first minutes of the night midway through the second quarter, joined in on the shootout as she often earns the bulk of her points from deep.
Patient basketball in the fourth quarter, Iowa up, 88-52, didn’t stop starting guard Molly Davis from letting a smooth stroke fly to break 90. And four more McCabe threes in that period broke 100, the Golden Gophers unable to pin down shooters and chase them off of the arc.
That was the theme all night. The Golden Gopher defense losing sight of who’s guarding who, too busy ball-watching. Tonight, the Hawkeyes decided to kill them for it.
