Caitlin Clark scoring record: How Iowa star passed Sheryl Swoopes on women's NCAA Tournament leaderboard

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Caitlin Clark
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Caitlin Clark has done it all to get Iowa within one win of a national championship.

The Naismith National Player of the Year Award winner has been the focal point of a dangerous Iowa offense all season, and she has not slowed down in the 2023 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Tournament. In fact, she has had two of her four highest-scoring games in the Elite Eight and Final Four.

The peak of Clark's season came on Friday against top-ranked, undefeated South Carolina. Facing the Hawkeyes' toughest challenge of the season, Clark went off, scoring 41 points to propel Iowa to the national championship game against LSU.

As Clark and the Hawkeyes prepare to face the Tigers, the standout guard has a chance to make some NCAA Tournament history in the last game of what has been a sensational season.

What does Clark need to do in order to set the tournament scoring record?

MORE: Clark's 41 points send Iowa to national championship

Caitlin Clark scoring record: How many points does Iowa star need?

Back in 1993, Sheryl Swoopes was in the same position as Clark. She had done everything to carry Texas Tech throughout the season, averaging 28.1 points and 9.2 rebounds per game. She was named the Naismith College Player of the Year.

She continued her run in the 1993 NCAA Tournament, averaging 35.4 points per game and propelling the Red Raiders to the national championship. Overall, she scored 177 points in five games, which remains the record for the most points scored in a single women's tournament.

Clark has been on a torrid scoring pace since the Hawkeyes began their March Madness run. Her lowest total of the tournament was 22 points in the second round, and she has scored 82 combined points in her past two contests. She has averaged 32.2 points per game with a total of 161 points.

MORE: Sports world reacts to Clark's performance vs. South Carolina

Clark will have the advantage of an extra game. While Swoopes played in five games, the max at the time, Clark will play in her sixth. All Clark needs to do is score 17 points, and she will own the tournament record. She has scored at least 17 points in all but one game this season, and all but five in 99 career games at Iowa.

Update 1: Clark broke Swoopes' record with her first basket of the second half, a 3-pointer to make the 63-45 in favor of LSU:

Update 2: It's not just Swoopes' record that Clark broke. Shortly after breaking Swoopes' record, Clark broke the record set by Michigan's Glen Rice in the 1989 NCAA Tournament with her seventh 3-point of the game, which gave her 25 points for the game and 185 for the tournament.

Could Caitlin Clark set single-game scoring record?

It is impossible to predict whether a player will score the most points in a tournament game, but would you feel comfortable betting against Clark?

With each game, Clark has only been scoring more. She has already come close to the record twice with 41-point performances in both the Elite Eight and Final Four. What does she need to score against LSU in order to set the single-game record?

The current record is 50, according to the NCAA. Back in 1982, Drake's Lorri Bauman scored 50 points in an 89-78 Elite Eight loss to Maryland.

MORE: Clark taunts South Carolina by leaving player alone in 3-point range

But there's another milestone Clark could potentially reach. Second on the list is Swoopes' 47 points scored against Ohio State in the national championship game. That mark of 47 is also the record for the most points scored in a women's national championship game.

The most points Clark has scored in a game in her career is 46, which came against Michigan on Feb. 6, 2022. If the game calls for her to set the record, she very well could do it.

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Edward Sutelan is a content producer at The Sporting News.