Caitlin Clark broke the NCAA women's basketball scoring record two weeks ago, but it wasn't until Wednesday that she became college basketball's all-time leading scorer.
The Iowa star passed Lynette Woodard's 3,649 career points with Kansas, erasing a significant asterisk from the NCAA's all-time scoring list. She was also just 18 points shy of breaking Pete Maravich's mark of 3,667 for the NCAA men's and women's points records.
Averaging more than 30 points per game, Clark is on pace to overtake Maravich in their next game, Iowa'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, breaking the single-season mark previously held by Idaho's Taylor Pierce in 2019 had.
The performance was part of a triple-double of 33 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds for Clark in Iowa's 108-60 win over Minnesota. She needed 32 points early in the game to keep pace with Woodard and nearly got there halfway through in four minutes.
Woodard scored her points between 1977 and 1981, a time when women's college basketball was governed by the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women. The NCAA did not officially sanction women's college basketball until 1982 and does not recognize players or statistics from before that year.
Woodard stood above all college basketball players for decades, but was not recognized as the best scorer of all time. As one historical observer Eden Laase of Yahoo Sports said:
“If you don't know the historians, you're cheating them and the current players,” said Elizabeth Galloway-Mcquitter. “One of the greats of our sport constantly remains in the shadows. And I imagine Caitlin [Clark] Would like to know whose record she’s really chasing.”
Clark has finally eliminated that discrepancy in the record book and still has plenty to do in the final games of her Iowa career (assuming she doesn't spurn the WNBA for a fifth year of college ball).
The remainder of Clark's season consists of the Hawkeyes' game against Ohio State, the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA Tournament. With Iowa currently sitting in third place in the Big Ten and on track for a double-bye in the conference tournament, Clark has up to ten games remaining.