MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Caitlin Clark broke the NCAA Division I record for 3-pointers in a season by a woman or man, finishing with 24 points, 10 rebounds and seven assists on a poor shooting night to lead No. 4 Iowa past Penn State 95-62 in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals Friday.
Clark missed her first 11 3-point attempts before finally connecting in the fourth quarter. It was her 163rd 3-pointer of the season, surpassing Stephen Curry of Davidson (2007-08) and Darius McGhee of Liberty (2022-23) for the most by a D-I player.
Clark, who already had surpassed Pete Maravich as the all-time leading scorer in D-I, finished 2 of 14 from long range and 5 of 19 from the field. But Iowa (27-4) still had little trouble with Penn State (19-12), leading 31-14 after the first quarter with Clark contributing only four free throws.
“I think as a shooter, sometimes you can feel it’s off, but honestly a lot of my shots I felt were right there,” Clark said. “I think that’s the most positive thing. A lot of them, I thought were going in, but they were sometimes a little short, sometimes a little long.”
The second-seeded Hawkeyes advanced to face the Indiana-Michigan winner in the semifinals Saturday.
Sydney Affolter scored a career-high 18 points and had nine rebounds for Iowa. Gabbie Marshall scored 15, Taylor McCabe had 12 and Kate Martin had 11 points and nine boards.
Leilani Kapinus led seventh-seeded Penn State with 19 points and Ashley Owusu had 18.
“Our game plan was going to be to take Caitlin out of her rhythm and hope the role players stayed in check, and tonight they stepped up in a big way,” Penn State coach Carolyn Kieger said. “So kudos to them.”
Clark, the nation’s leading scorer who came in averaging 32.3 points, made her first field goal — a midrange jumper — early in the second quarter. It was her only basket of the half, but she hit eight of nine free throws before halftime and 12 of 13 overall.
She had been held without a 3-pointer only once in her college career. Clark went 0-for-6 from beyond the arc but scored 24 points in a win over Purdue on Jan. 13, 2022.
Affolter (3-for-4 on 3s), Marshall (4-for-7) and McCabe (4-for-8) made up for Clark’s misfires beyond the arc.
“I’m just so glad her teammates picked up the slack in that area,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. “It just gives us so much more confidence moving forward and makes us so much harder to guard when we play like we did tonight.”
Martin and Affolter hit 3s to start the game as Iowa raced out to a 10-0 lead.
The Nittany Lions cut Iowa’s lead to single digits just once after the first quarter. An 11-2 run brought Penn State within 33-24. But Iowa scored the next nine points to regain control.
“Whenever Penn State went on a run, our group always had an answer, and I think that’s super positive,” Clark said. “That’s what you’re going to need during March basketball.”
With top-seeded Ohio State bowing out of the tournament after its quarterfinals loss to Maryland, the road to a second straight Big Ten Tournament title is wide open for the Hawkeyes. But they aren’t going to get caught looking too far ahead.
“Our group is veteran enough to understand how these tournaments go,” Clark said. “We’ve been on the losing side of March Madness, and I think we know not to take anything for granted.”
Michigan 69, Indiana 56
Laila Phelia scored 20 of her career-high 30 points in the second half when the sixth-seeded Wolverines erased a 17-point deficit and raced away from the third-seeded and No. 12-ranked Hoosiers.
Michigan (20-12) will take on No. 3 Iowa, the second seed, and Caitlin Clark, in a Saturday semifinals. The Wolverines lost at Iowa 106-89 on Feb. 15 in their only regular-season meeting when Clark scored 49 points and became the NCAA women’s career points leader.
The Hoosiers were mostly without leading scorer and rebounder Mackenzie Holmes, who suffered a knee injury against Maryland in a regular-season finale Sunday. She dressed for the game but was on the bench while her teammates built a 35-21 halftime lead.
Yarden Garzon opened the third quarter with a 3-pointer to give Indiana (24-5) its largest lead of 17. That’s when Phelia rallied the Wolverines, scoring 10 points in the period to cut the deficit to three and then adding 10 more in the fourth when Michigan outscored Indiana 29-13.
Maryland 82, Ohio State 61
Shyanne Sellers had 25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists to lead the Terrapins’ upset of the fourth-ranked and regular-season champion Buckeyes.
Brinae Alexander and Jakia Brown-Turner each scored 19 points and Faith Masonius added 15 points and 11 rebounds for Maryland (19-12), which delivered the type of statement performance that ought to push them toward the safe side of the bubble for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.
“I’m telling you right now: The Maryland team you see in March is not the same team you see at the beginning,” Sellers said. “I think we just proved that.”
Maryland will play Nebraska on Saturday afternoon, the ninth time in 10 years the Terrapins have reached the semifinals. Nebraska and Michigan State took the court for their quarterfinal game right after the Terrapins finished avenging two regular-season losses to Ohio State.
Nebraska 73, Michigan State 61
Alexis Markowski had 22 points and 12 rebounds, Natalie Potts added 15 points and 11 rebounds and the fifth-seeded Cornhuskers beat the No. 4 Spartans.
The Cornhuskers (21-10) advance to play eighth-seeded Maryland, which defeated top seed and No. 4-ranked Ohio State 82-61 earlier Friday. Nebraska beat Maryland 87-81 on Dec. 31.
Jaz Shelley added 17 points and seven assists and Logan Nissley scored 13 points for Nebraska.
Julia Ayrault scored 25 points, the only Spartan (22-8) in double figures on team that had five players average double digits.
