Caitlin Clark reaches 2K career points; Iowa beats Dartmouth
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Caitlin Clark scored 20 points to tie the mark for the quickest Division I player in the men’s or women’s game to reach 2,000 career points on Wednesday in No. 13 Iowa’s 92-54 victory over Dartmouth.
Clark reached the milestone in her 75th game, pulling even with former Delaware star and current WNBA standout Elena Delle Donne as the two people to have gotten to 2,000 so quickly since at least the 1999-2000 season, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
Clark did it in style, too, knocking down her 242nd career 3-pointer. Iowa coach Lisa Bluder called a timeout to celebrate the moment. After the game, Clark signed her shoes and gave them to a young girl in the crowd.
“I don’t think she was really expecting me to give her her shoes. She was like, ‘For me?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah, for you,’” Clark said in the postgame news conference, according to a video posted to the team’s Twitter account. “So hopefully I gave her a good present for the holiday season … I have quite a few shoes in my locker, so my teammates are probably happy that I just disposed of a pair.”
She added: “I hope she enjoys them and keeps them and reminds her of, you know, that she can always dream to be one of us. And that’s more important than winning a basketball game at the end of the day.”
The junior, who along with Aliyah Boston of South Carolina were unanimous picks for The Associated Press preseason All-America team, also had 10 rebounds and six assists to help Iowa (10-3) to its fifth straight victory.
Teammate Monika Czinano, who entered with 1,969 career points in 98 games, also scored 20 points for Iowa. McKenna Warnock added 14 points, AJ Ediger scored a career-high 10 points and Kate Martin had a career-high 13 assists.
The Hawkeyes scored 34 points in the first quarter and held Dartmouth to just five points in the second quarter.
Allie Harland led Dartmouth (2-11) with 11 points.
Iowa returns to Big Ten play next week with games against Purdue and Illinois.
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AP women’s college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-college-basketball and https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-womens-college-basketball-poll and https://twitter.com/AP_Top25
