Caitlin Clark breaks WNBA rookie scoring record as historic season rolls on

The NCAA’s all-time leading scorer added another scoring title to her résumé.

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark set the WNBA record for points in a rookie season, eclipsing Hall of Famer Seimone Augustus during a 110-109 victory over the Dallas Wings at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on Sunday afternoon in Indianapolis. Clark, playing in her 39th game, needed 19 points to move past Augustus, who scored 744 points in 34 games in 2006 with Minnesota.

After notching 15 points in the first half, Clark hit a pull-up jumper from inside the arc early in the third quarter to get within reach of the mark. Then, with just under three minutes remaining in the quarter, Clark worked free for a step-back three-pointer from the left angle that tied the score at 78 and pushed her past Augustus. Clark finished with a career-high 35 points, shooting 10 for 22 from the field and 6 for 14 on three-pointers, to push her season total to 761 points.

“When I went to my first WNBA game [as a kid], Seimone was the first player who I ever met courtside when I watched them warming up,” Clark said. “It comes full circle, for sure. I got my picture [with Augustus] on my dad’s little BlackBerry phone - I vividly remember it. I was always a fan of her game and the way she could shoot the ball and score the ball.”

The WNBA lengthened its season to 36 games in 2022 and to 40 games in 2023, fueling a wave of record-setting achievements this season. In a loss to the Las Vegas Aces on Friday, Clark set the WNBA record by reaching 321 assists, surpassing Alyssa Thomas, who had 316 last season. Clark also holds the rookie record with 120 three-pointers, demolishing the previous mark of 85 by Rhyne Howard in 2022.

Meanwhile, Aces star A’ja Wilson has set the WNBA single-season scoring record with 971 points and counting, and Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese set the WNBA mark with 446 rebounds before her rookie season was cut short with a wrist injury. Wilson could surpass Reese’s mark before the regular season ends Thursday.

“It definitely just speaks to the whole entire year and how historic it’s been,” Clark said Friday after setting the assists mark. “You’re just going to continue to see records taken down - and also really good basketball. That’s why it’s been so fun to watch and the fans have been showing up and the viewership has crushed this year. Everyone is raising their game, and the competition is getting better and better.”

Before becoming the top pick in April’s WNBA draft, Clark scored 3,951 points during four standout seasons at Iowa to become the most prolific scorer in NCAA Division I history. During her senior season, Clark surpassed Kelsey Plum’s women’s record of 3,527 points and Lynette Woodard’s major school women’s record of 3,649 points. Clark also eclipsed Pete Maravich’s NCAA Division I record of 3,667 points, which was set in three seasons.

Though many predicted Clark would undergo an adjustment period when she entered the WNBA, the 22-year-old guard has made an instant impact by averaging 19.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 8.4 assists, leading the league in all-star votes and guiding the Fever to a playoff spot for the first time since 2016. Clark became the first rookie to register a triple-double when she posted 19 points, 12 rebounds and 13 assists in a July 6 win over the New York Liberty, and no player in league history has matched her 19-point, 5-rebound and 8-assist averages for a season. Her WNBA arrival also has produced record television ratings, attendance figures and merchandise sales.

“She’s doing incredible things,” Fever Coach Christie Sides said. “... She’s just special.”

Hall of Famer Cynthia Cooper, who was 34 when the WNBA launched in 1997, has the highest rookie scoring average: 22.2 points in a 28-game season. Augustus is second at 21.9; Clark ranks fourth at 19.5.

The Fever (20-19), which concludes its season Thursday at Washington, will enter the playoffs as the No. 6 seed and will face the Minnesota Lynx or the Connecticut Sun in a best-of-three first-round series.

Indiana went 1-2 against Minnesota and 1-3 against Connecticut.

“We’re not just happy to be there,” Clark said. “We really feel and believe that we can compete with every single team that’s going to be in the playoffs. We have confidence because whoever our first-round matchup is, we’ve beaten them before.”