Caitlin Clark recently became the newest all-time leading scorer showcasing her undeniable talent and commitment to the sport. However, as the spotlight shone brightly on the Iowa’s superstar’s remarkable achievement, the sweetness of success turned sour when her team lost to Kansas. The defeat added a layer of complexity to her journey.

In Thursday’s Iowa Hawkeyes vs. Kansas Wildcats matchup, the National Player of the Year’s performance looked ironic, with #2 Iowa eventually falling to Kansas State at 65-58. Moreover, Clark seemed to be on the move to make another record. But not for the better part of it. It was the first time in her career that she missed 20 or more shots in a game.

Not Caitlin Clark’s Game

The Clark-spark was clearly missing as she hooped only 24 points (shot 9-out-of-32 from the field and 2-out-of-16 from afar) in the lost cause. Also, she made her first 3-point shot of the game with just 1 minute left in the second quarter.

With the prevailing defense of the Wildcats, all efforts made by the Hawkeyes got derailed. Evidently, the Wildcats threw “waves of players at Caitlin,” as stated by Kansas’ head coach Jeff Mittie.

Read More: Passing The Torch, Caitlin Clark’s “Unbelievable” Record Receives Iowa Legend’s Stamp of Approval

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Hence, the pregame spirit didn’t come through as Clark’s performance looked ironic, with Iowa eventually falling to Kansas State at 65-58.

Amped with high hopes pregame

In the pregame interview, the newest all-time leading scorer looked stoked with positivity to go head-on with the Wildcats. Indicating the special message from Megan Gustafson, Clark said, “Yeah it was super special and Megan reached out to me the night before and just said you to me the night before and just said you know you deserve it go get it um, and Megan’s one of those people that truly mean that she wants the best for everybody.”

Elaborating on the factors contributing to this achievement, she said, “I think the biggest thing is coach Bluder has just allowed me to be myself ever since I stepped on campus and I’ve been lucky enough to have really good teammates and uh play a lot of postseason basketball which certainly helps too and um you know it’s I’ve just been lucky enough and hopefully I can score a lot more points for this program this year and um definitely a special moment for me and my team.”

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Weighing in her team’s progress against Kansas, Caitlin said, “I think just the hard work that we put in in the offseason we understood our team’s going to look a lot different than it did last year and that’s how it should be you know we can be different um and I think that’s almost better for us in a way people don’t really know what to expect every time we take the floor.”

But it was one of those days when it was not meant to be. All said and done, Clark and Co. must be eyeing their next encounter now for some pay back.