Kaitlyn Clark broke the NCAA women's basketball scoring record two weeks ago, but it wasn't until Wednesday that she became the all-time leading scorer among women's college basketball.
Iowa star Lynette Woodard's 3,649 career points with Kansas eclipsed a notable star on the NCAA's all-time scoring list. She is 18 points shy of tying Pete Maravich's mark of 3,667 for the NCAA scoring record between men and women.
Averaging more than 30 points per game, Clark is on pace to surpass Maravich in his next game, Sunday's Iowa regular-season finale against No. 2 Ohio State.
Moments before passing Woodard, Clark set another official NCAA record, hitting his 155th 3-pointer of the season to break the single-season mark previously held by Idaho's Taylor Pierce in 2019.
Clark had 33 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds as part of a triple-double in Minnesota's 108-60 blowout of Iowa. He entered the game needing 32 points to tie with Woodard and scored nearly half in four minutes.
Woodard scored her points between 1977 and 1981, a time when women's college basketball was governed by the Women's Intercollegiate Athletic Association. The NCAA did not officially sanction women's college basketball until 1982, and did not recognize any players or statistics prior to that year.
So for decades, Woodard was above every women's college basketball player, but not recognized as the all-time leading scorer. As one historical observer told Yahoo Sports' Eden Laws:
“When you don't know the history makers, it lets them and the current players down,” said Elizabeth Galloway-McWhotter. “One of the greats of our sport is constantly being overshadowed. I imagine Caitlin [Clark] I'd love to know whose record she's actually chasing.
Clark did more in the last few games of her Iowa career (assuming she didn't skip the WNBA for a fifth year of college ball) and put that streak in the record books.
The remainder of Clark's season includes the Hawkeyes' game against Ohio State, the Big Ten Tournament and the NCAA tournament. With Iowa currently ranked third in the Big Ten and on track for a double-bye in the conference tournament, Clark still has 10 games to play.
