Iowa junior forward Caitlin Clark registered the first ever 40-point triple-double in Division I NCAA Tournament history during Iowa’s 97-83 Elite Eight win over Louisville. The victory sent the Hawkeyes to their first Final Four since 1993.
Clark posted a ridiculous stat line: 41 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds.
“Are you kidding? It’s mind boggling,” head coach Lisa Bluder said during the postgame press conference.
Bluder said she could only describe Clark’s performance as “spectacular.” Meanwhile, Clark still needed some time to process the magnitude of her achievement. She said her focus was on taking her team to the Final Four, and after she accomplished that, her next mission was finding the game ball and giving it to her parents to sneak back to the hotel.
“I hope they got out of the arena in time, so the NCAA can’t chase ’em down. But I told ’em to run,” she said.
That was Clark’s fifth triple-double of the season and 11th of her career, second best in NCAA basketball history after former Oregon star Sabrina Ionescu’s 26 during her time at Oregon. Clark is now also the first player in Division I basketball history — men’s or women’s — with 900 points and 300 assists in a single…
