While Iowa star Caitlin Clark registered 35 points, six rebounds and nine assists during her team’s thrilling 93-83 win against the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes, the Hawkeyes’ men’s basketball team also continued their good form.
Coach Fran McCaffery’s team beat the Northwestern Wildcats 87-80 for their fourth win in the last five games. Connor McCaffery, the coach’s son and Caitlin Clark’s boyfriend, showed his support for the Hawkeyes team by reposting a picture of their win on his Instagram page.
Caitlin Clark breaks ‘Pistol Pete’ Maravich’s record
Caitlin Clark seems to be breaking a record every week, with the most recent being ‘Pistol Pete’ Maravich’s 54-year-old points record (3,667).
She did it with a free throw at the end of the first half against Ohio State and was stoic through the crowd’s wild celebrations. During a halftime interview with Fox Sports, she said she had no idea that she broke the record.
“Not really,” Clark said. “But when they announced it and everybody screamed, that’s when I knew. Pretty cool. Good half for us. I think we could do a little better job on defense, clean it up a little bit. But proud of our girls. They’re fighting. They’re a really good team. They’re going to give everything they’ve got.”
After the game, Clark, who recently declared for the 2024 WNBA Draft, still appeared nonplussed at the record she had set in college basketball and was melancholic at the prospect of leaving the Hawkeyes for the WNBA.
“I think [I’m] just soaking it all in. We’re probably going to have two more games here, which makes it a little less bitter but I’m just very thankful for all these people that are going to stick around and support us and have supported us over my four years.
It probably won’t hit me until a little bit later but I’m just going to enjoy it with my family and my teammates, and I’m just happy to be in this place,” Caitlin Clark said.
To commemorate her record-breaking achievement, Nike went all out. They released merchandise with the phrase, “This was never a long shot,” and even aired a 50-second television spot to celebrate their star student-athlete.
There was something poetic about Caitlin Clark breaking Pete Maravich’s long-standing record during the last regular season game in front of an adoring Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd days after announcing her departure.
Edited by Nicolaas Ackermann
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