Before Monday night, star hadn't held an entire venue in the palm of her hand in the 2024 in the same manner she did during the regular season. But Clark completely took over in No. 1-seed Iowa's 94-87 Elite Eight victory over No. 3-seed LSU, scoring 41 points and dishing 12 assists. Her unparalleled
shooting talent caused start-to-finish buzz at MVP Arena in Albany, as she put forth her best March Madness effort of the current campaign. With about five minutes left on the clock, Clark made her ninth 3-pointer to give Iowa an 11-point lead to help put the game away. Afterward, she pounded her chest in celebration as the realization set in that the Hawkeyes were headed to the Final Four. Below, Mirror Sports U.S. breaks down the entirety of Clark's incredible performance to take her Hawkeyes to the Final Four... Caitlin Clark became the women's Division I leader in career 3-pointers made with 538, pushing her beyond former Oklahoma star Taylor Robertson, who played one more year of college
basketball. She also surpassed Pearl Moore's AIAW scoring record of 3,884 points, . Finally, Clark's nine 3-pointers tied an NCAA Tournament single-game record. LSU was in trouble as soon as it went under a screen in the first quarter, allowing Clark an easy 3-point make to settle in. After admitting she felt the pressure of expectations earlier in the tournament, she showed little signs of stress against the Tigers. For much of the season, forward Hannah Stuelke has been the secondary scorer alongside Clark and top interior threat. Earlier in the NCAA Tournament she dealt with an illness, and against LSU, it was foul trouble that plagued the post player. She managed just 21 minutes. To make up for Stuelke's scoring, Kate Martin contributed 21 points and
Sydney Affolter added 16, with those figures well above their season averages. Angel Reese outplayed Clark for stretches in the first half but tailed off later in the game, with perhaps contributing to her woes. Reese scored only four points after halftime and before the final buzzer. Iowa has now reached the Final Four for a second-consecutive year, but according to Clark, this year's trip is far sweeter. “This one probably feels a little bit better, it’s my senior year with this group," she told ESPN's Holly Rowe. "A lot of people counted us out at the beginning of the year with the people we lost and all we did was work really hard. “To get back here was really hard, this region was loaded with so much talent and, you know, the job’s not finished.” In Iowa's postgame press conference, Clark fielded questions on a wide range of topics, with one of the most interesting ones related to LSU's defensive approach. When a reporter asked Clark what she thought about Flau'jae Johnson not guarding her as often as many people expected, the sharpshooter responded, "Honestly, no matter what they threw at me, I thought we always had a good answer." But she acknowledged she expected more coverage from the LSU sophomore. "Coming into this game I did expect her to guard me," Clark admitted. "I will say that. "But at the same time, every team we play throws multiple defenders at us. I don't see one person for 40 minutes. And that's what they did. They brought somebody in off the bench that guarded me too. She guarded me a little bit. "Also you don't want some of your best players to get in foul trouble. So I don't know if that was the reasoning behind it. But coming into this game I think that's what I was more prepared for. But you don't get to know what the other team is going to do." Another reporter asked Clark about her chest-pounding celebration after hitting her final 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter to give Iowa a double-digit advantage. "I think I just got hyped for a second, honestly," Clark responded. "I was trying to be pretty calm and cool. Like, when you're playing a team like LSU, like they're never out of the game. No matter what the time and score is. That's what I told our girls. I think there was 4:45 on the clock, and we were up 11. I was like, 'Do not start celebrating. Do not start getting too emotional. This game is not over. They're going to fight until the end.' "And that's exactly what they did. But sometimes you get a little hype for yourself and you do things that you don't even realize you're doing. I think that was the only three I celebrated."