On a night when the countdown was on for Caitlin Clark’s inevitable eclipse of the NCAA scoring record, Hannah Stuelke was the Hawkeye who dropped 47 points in a 111-93 win over Penn State on Thursday night.
“We were just trying to win the game,” said Iowa coach Lisa Bluder when asked about Clark’s pursuit of the record. “It’s going to happen. That’s not important. It’s important to win this game.”
Clark finished with 27 and will next travel to Nebraska on Super Bowl Sunday, 39 points away from Kelsey Plum’s record 3,527. After that, it’s back to Iowa City to host Michigan a week from today.
“I would rather she break it at home,” Bluder said. “Our fans deserve that. But believe me, our No. 1 priority will be to win the game at Nebraska.”
While the likelihood of the Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd seeing 66 in one night from Clark was low, they were almost treated to history anyway, as Stuelke was just a point short of Megan Gustafson’s single-game record on 17 of 20 shooting. She added nine rebounds as the Hawkeyes dominated in the paint with a 56-30 scoring edge.
“I think that’s what everybody’s been waiting for,” Clark told BTN after the game. “You know, she’s had glimpses of being really, really great like that, but we all know how good she is. And I’m just proud of her. She works so hard. She’s put in so much time. … To come out here and play like that is exactly what we needed. I think she dominated and to see her confidence grow like that and to see her smile like that, as a teammate you’re just really happy.”
Stuelke agreed that this performance will give her game a boost.
“I think my confidence is going to come up a lot,” said Stuelke, who came into the game averaging 12.7 points. “Now I can be more aggressive offensively, so that’s exciting.”
Kate Martin added 16 points and 16 rebounds, and Clark finished with 15 assists — 11 to Stuelke.
“She just has confidence in me,” Stuelke said. “She wants to keep me playing at my best.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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