Iowa’s Kaitlin Clark excites crowd of women’s basketball fans at U of M

The most followed player in women’s college basketball has broken a record and is closing in on an even bigger goal. Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes easily defeated the Minnesota Gophers 108-60 on Wednesday night.

Clark fell 50 points short of tying the men’s and women’s all-time NCAA scoring record at Williams Arena — and he left the court 18 points away from breaking it. But as of Wednesday night, Clark has scored more points than any other woman in history playing for a major college. That record was held by Lynette Woodard of Kansas with 3,649 points from 1977–81. At the time, women’s basketball was under the jurisdiction of the Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women.

Three members of the Jafetson family drove from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula and stood in line with other early arrivers three hours before the game. The family wore Clark’s jersey number 22.

Martina Jahfetsson, 20, has followed Clark since the star was a freshman.

“She’s a great player, but she’s still unselfish and she gets the job done and you can see how much hard work she puts into it, you know, it inspires you to do the same thing that she does.” “Can,” Jahfetson said.

The game sold out in December, the second sellout in University of Minnesota women’s basketball history.

Clarke is selling out arenas across the country as she breaks record after record. The record to be broken now belongs to Pete Maravich, who scored 3,667 points before the NCAA included the 3-point shot.

Schools hosting the Hawkeye Women have seen attendance increase by more than 150 percent, the Associated Press reports.

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“The number of people interested in girls and women’s basketball has exploded. And it’s a very special time, and I feel very fortunate to be a part of it,” said Prep Girls Hoops scout and author Grant McGinnis. He said Gophers star Lindsey Whalen, as well as Hopkins High School and now UConn standout Paige Bueckers, helped build elite girls basketball in the state.

In the late 1970s, Janet Karvonen-Montgomery was one of the first stars in Minnesota girls basketball as she captained her Otter Tail County team.

“If you talked to people who were around during that time, I think people would say the New York Mills (Eagles) helped put girls basketball on the map. We certainly helped put New York Mills on the map – in addition to the Lund fishing boats,” he said.

Karvonen-Montgomery set the state high school girls scoring record with 3,129 points, which stood until 1997, and led the Eagles to three state championships.

She said that interest in women’s basketball has increased in the last few years and Clark is one of the reasons for this.

“She’s a celebrity but she’s also supporting it,” Karvonen-Montgomery said. “And that’s a sign of real, true greatness as a basketball player.”

Clark dominated against the Gophers, scoring 33 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists. He had eight 3-point shots.

The arena was packed with fans, many of them in Iowa Hawkeyes gear and carrying Caitlin Clark signs.

“It’s good to see the impact we have across the country, whether we’re in Charlotte, whether we’re on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Rutgers, it’s always been the same. “There’s always a lot of people cheering for us,” Clark said.

Clark said it was “pretty special” to get close to the record held by Maravich, but his “first goal” was to beat Ohio State in Iowa City on Sunday.

“It’s extremely special to be in the same circle as many of these really talented players who have done a lot of great things, not just for men’s basketball or just women’s basketball, but for basketball in general.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.