In what has become the most common occurrence during her rookie season, Caitlin Clark broke another record Sunday during the Indiana Fever’s game against the Dallas Wings.
Clark, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 draft, became the all-time rookie scoring leader on — what else? — a deep 3 with 2:51 to play in the third quarter, surpassing former Minnesota Lynx standout Seimone Augustus, the No. 1 pick in 2006.
Augustus scored 744 points that season and won the Rookie of the Year. After Sunday’s career-high 35 points in Indiana’s 110-109 win over Dallas, Clark is now at 761 points with one more regular season game to play.
Indiana wraps up the regular season Thursday at Washington.
Clark leads all rookies in scoring per game (19.5) and leads the entire league in assists per game (8.4). She has also made more 3s (120) than anyone this season. In July she became the first rookie in the history of the WNBA to record a triple-double; she now has two in her professional career. Additionally, earlier this season she set a single-game league record for assists (19) and broke the rookie record for assists in a season.
After a record-breaking college career at Iowa, Clark has more than lived up to the pressure and hype surrounding her as she entered the league, already helping Indiana secure a playoff spot for the first time since 2016. She is the overwhelming favorite to win Rookie of the Year, likely to beat her biggest rival, Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese, who set WNBA rebounding records all season but is missing the final few games with a wrist injury.
The two of them have driven unprecedented interest in the WNBA’s 28th season and could help the players’ association fight for a significant increase in salaries in the next collective bargaining agreement.
Email Lindsay Schnell at lschnell@usatoday.com and follow her on social media @Lindsay_Schnell
