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Iowa’s Caitlin Clark joins NBA stars with historic consecutive 30-point triple-double

ryan young
Staff writer
·2 min read
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Caitlin Clark of the Iowa Hawkeyes
Since 2000, only six NBA players have done what Caitlin Clark did on Thursday night for the Hawkeyes. (G Fiume/Maryland Terrapins/Getty Images)

Caitlin Clark joined an elite group of basketball stars on Thursday night.

Clark, while leading No. 25 Iowa to a massive 105-49 win over Minnesota, dropped a triple-double with 35 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists.

Not only did that make her the first Big Ten player to record a triple-double in consecutive games — as she did the same thing on Sunday in the Hawkeyes’ win over Nebraska — but Clark joined just six others in the sport to have back-to-back 30-point triple doubles since 2000.

Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, Luka Doncic and Giannis Antetokounmpo are the only others in the NBA, WNBA and men’s and women’s Division I basketball to have accomplished that feat in the last 22 years.

That's it.

“Sometimes you have those special nights, and this was one of them,” Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said, via the Cedar Rapids Gazette. “I’m still trying to take it all in. That was some really pretty basketball, and I like pretty basketball.”

Clark is averaging 25.6 points, 8.2 rebounds and 7.4 assists so far this season, her second in Iowa City. She has three triple-doubles already this season and four 30-point games for the Hawkeyes — who have now won four straight.

They cruised on Thursday in Minneapolis, too. Iowa outscored Minnesota 58-15 in the second half en route to the 56-point win, which marked Minnesota’s worst loss of the NCAA era, per The Gazette.

“I’m the type of player that’s going to keep shooting it no matter what, and I knew it was going to go down eventually,” Clark said on the Big Ten Network. “I think that kind of got me going early … Seeing a couple go in always gets you going right off the bat.”