IOWA CITY, Iowa — Hannah Stuelke scored a career-high 47 points, and Caitlin Clark had 27 points as No. 2 Iowa defeated Penn State 111-93 on Thursday night.
Clark now has 3,489 career points, moving within 38 points of NCAA women’s basketball career scoring leader Kelsey Plum.
Clark, who was 8 of 23 from the field, had 15 assists to record her 56th career double-double, but also committed a career-high 12 turnovers.
But Clark was getting the ball to Stuelke, with 11 assists on her 17 field goals. Stuelke had the second-highest scoring game in program history, hitting 17 of 20 shots and going 13 of 21 from the free-throw line.
Iowa (22-2, 11-1 Big Ten) won its fourth consecutive game to stay tied with Ohio State at the top of the conference standings.
Ashley Owusu led Penn State (16-7, 7-5) with 18 points. Leilani Kapinus and Makenna Marisa had 12 points.
Clark struggled in the first quarter, picking up two fouls while shooting just 2 of 7 from the field and committing five turnovers.
Iowa went on a 12-3 run early in the second quarter to take a 35-30 lead, a stretch that was started by a Clark 3-pointer. The Hawkeyes stayed in front after that, closing the half with a 14-5 run to take a 55-44 halftime lead.
Stuelke scores Iowa's first seven points of the second half as the Hawkeyes opened a 68-49 lead with 6:19 to go in the third quarter.
Kate Martin added 16 points and 16 rebounds for the Hawkeyes.
BIG PICTURE
Penn State: The Nittany Lions could have used a road win over a top-5 team to help solidify their NCAA tournament resume, but couldn’t get away from the Hawkeyes early when Clark was struggling.
Iowa: Clark seemed out of sorts in the first quarter, but settled down when she started making shots in the second quarter. Stuelke helped the Hawkeyes keep pace with the Nittany Lions until Clark could get going, and continued to dominate Penn State inside in the second half.
UP NEXT
Penn State: At Wisconsin on Sunday.
Iowa: At Nebraska on Sunday.