The impending winter storm headed for Iowa City moved the game time up a couple of hours, but several thousand fans still made their way into Carver-Hawkeye Arena to watch the Iowa Women’s basketball team take down Dartmouth by a final score of 92-54.

They also got to witness Caitlin Clark tying an NCAA record.

With 7:53 in the second quarter, Clark came off a screen and knocked down a three pointer to put the Hawkeyes up 45-19. After a Dartmouth basket, Lisa Bluder took a timeout, and the Carver crowd gave Caitlin a standing ovation.

The basket got Clark over 2,000 points in her career and put her in a tie for the NCAA record for the fastest to 2,000 points in just 75 career games. She tied former Delaware center and WNBA star Elena Delle Donne for the record.

“I just felt like this was a game that we could burn a timeout and celebrate somebody that really ought to be celebrated,” said Lisa Bluder.

“Delle Donne, she was a person I idolized growing up,” said Clark. “I have her shoes in my locker and I wear them, so it’s just kind of cool to be in the company of some of the players that I am. It’s really an honor.”

After the game, Clark took off her game shoes, signed them and took them to someone in the crowd. A Christmas present for a young girl that attended the game.

“Just a little girl that looked like she was happy to be at the game. I think she was pretty shocked. I don’t think she was really expecting me to give her shoes,” said Clark. “She was like “for me?” and I was like yeah for you. Hopefully I gave her a good present for the holiday season and made her happy.”

As for the rest of the game, the Hawkeyes took care of business. The Big Green hit some shots in the opening quarter and Iowa led just 34-19. However, the Iowa defense held Dartmouth to 2/17 shooting from the floor and extended their lead to 54-24 at the halftime break.

“Really shot as a whole we shot the ball very well. We got out and pushed well, especially to start the game,” said Bluder. “The defensive effort in the second quarter was excellent. Let up a little bit after halftime and that was a little disappointing, but at the same time we got it the energy back in that fourth quarter.”

Coach Bluder was able to use her bench for much of the second half, including the first minutes of the season for true freshman Jada Gyamfi. She has been working back from an injury and scored her first basket as a Hawkeye late in the game.

Caitlin Clark finished the game with 20 points and 10 rebounds, a double double performance. Monika Czinano finished with 20 points on 10/14 shooting, while McKenna Warnock added 14 points. Sophomore AJ Ediger had a career-high ten points on 5/7 shooting. Kate Martin also had an impressive 13 assists in 23 minutes on the floor.

Despite the win, Caitlin Clark mentioned that there are still things to work on with Big Ten play on the horizon.

“I think as a team, 16 (turnovers) isn’t really a great number. I think we could be a lot better in that area. I felt like we gave up too many offensive boards in the first half and we didn’t get enough ourselves…I still think on defense we can still improve quite a bit. Containing the drive and not fouling after we contain a drive.”

“(10-3 record) I think that’s pretty good considering the schedule that we’ve played,” said Bluder. “We know it’s going to get a lot more difficult as we go into the conference season, but I feel pretty good where we are. The thing is, I feel optimistic that we can get better.”

The Hawkeyes get a bit of a break for Christmas, but after four days off they will be back in town to prepare for the resumption of Big Ten play. They are currently 2-0 in conference play with wins over Wisconsin and Minnesota. The Purdue Boilermakers come to town on December 29th, and they have already taken Maryland to the wire this season.

“We get sent home with workouts for weights and conditioning and for shooting,” said Kate Martin during media availability earlier in the week. “We want to win, and we know if we sit on our butts for four days that’s not going to help us.”

The game against Purdue is at 8:00pm on December 29th and will be televised on the Big Ten Network.