Caitlin Clark moves past Lynette Woodard for major college women’s scoring record

Caitlin Clark has another career record on her astounding resume: the most points by any major college women’s player to ever take the court.

Iowa’s superstar guard scored 33 points on Wednesday to lead the sixth-ranked Hawkeyes in a romp at Minnesota, pushing her past Lynette Woodard on the all-time list with 3,650 points.

Clark left little doubt she’d get there by dribbling left off a screen and swishing a 3-pointer from the top of the key just 13 seconds into the game. She swished her first four 3-pointers, three of them from extra deep, and had 15 points in the first 3:18 of the game.

The heat check came midway through the first quarter, a flick from the top that bounced off the back rim and prompted a half-hearted “Overrated!” chant from a few wise guys in the Minnesota student section.

Clark had 21 points at halftime. She spent most of the second half flashing her passing skills to find open teammates, but finally with 4:17 left she buried her eighth 3-pointer of the game to pass Woodard. She also set the NCAA single-season record for 3-pointers in the process.

Woodard totaled 3,649 points from 1977-81 for Kansas when the sport was under the purveyance of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, before the NCAA sanctioned women’s basketball. Earlier this month, Clark passed Kelsey Plum (3,527) as the all-time NCAA women’s scoring leader.

Pete Maravich (3,667) is the all-time major college leader for either gender, just 17 points ahead of Clark. Pistol Pete played for LSU from 1967-70 and, like Woodard, in the era preceding the 3-point shot.

Pearl Moore of Francis Marion has the overall women’s record with 4,061 points from 1975-79 at the small-college level in the AIAW. Moore had 177 points in junior college before enrolling at Francis Marion.

There are three other small-college players from the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, including current University of Health Sciences and Pharmacy guard Grace Beyer, ahead of Clark.

In front of a sellout crowd of more than 14,000 fans at Williams Arena, the 11th sellout in 11 true road games this season for Clark and her crew, the Hawkeyes cruised past the Gophers to make the record more palatable for the fourth-year player.

Clark has graciously handled the spotlight on her individual feats while trying to stress the importance of team performance, with two losses in the previous four games costing Iowa an opportunity for the Big Ten regular season championship. Ohio State clinched the title on Wednesday and visits Iowa on Sunday in a clash of conference and national powerhouses.

What about Woodard?

She was a two-time Olympian and captain of the 1984 U.S. team that won the gold medal at the Summer Games in Los Angeles, a versatile player and a magnetic personality who played professionally in Italy and Japan and in 1985 became the first female member of the Harlem Globetrotters traveling hoops troupe. She played in the WNBA in 1997-98, the league’s first two seasons, and was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2004. Woodard was also the head coach at Winthrop for three-plus seasons from 2017-20.

Reporting by The Associated Press.

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