{"id":659064,"date":"2026-03-16T06:04:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T06:04:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/659064\/"},"modified":"2026-03-16T06:04:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T06:04:14","slug":"caitlin-clark-enters-her-name-in-the-qualifying-tournament-record-books","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/659064\/","title":{"rendered":"Caitlin Clark Enters Her Name in the Qualifying Tournament Record Books"},"content":{"rendered":"

Caitlin Clark<\/a> and the United States women’s basketball team moved to 4-0 at the 2026 FIBA World Cup qualifying tournament on Sunday, taking down Sharne Robati and New Zealand 101-46. Now, Team USA is one win away from being perfect, facing Megan Gustafson and Spain on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Clark continued to shine against New Zealand, earning her first start for the USA’s senior team. The Indiana Fever<\/a> star tallied 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting and 2-of-7 from 3-point range, six assists and two steals in just over 23 minutes of action. But Atlanta Dream guard Rhyne Howard was the United States’ leading scorer, putting up 18 points on 6-of-10 shooting.<\/p>\n

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\"Indiana<\/p>\n

Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark.Brett Davis-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

(Brett Davis-Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Going into USA vs. New Zealand, Clark had totaled 19 assists through her first three FIBA World Cup games, including a 12-assist performance in the opening win over Senegal. This was good for the second-most assists ever by a Team USA player in a single FIBA World Cup qualifying tournament.<\/p>\n

With 6:03 remaining in Sunday’s matchup, Clark hit Washington Mystics<\/a> forward Kiki Iriafen for a two-point layup to extend the USA’s lead to 90-41. This marked Clark’s fourth assist of the game and 23rd of the 2026 FIBA World Cup qualifying tournament.<\/p>\n

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In doing so, the former Iowa Hawkeyes star surpassed Las Vegas Aces<\/a> guard Chelsea Gray (22) for the most assists by a Team USA player in a single FIBA World Cup qualifying tournament, finishing the day with a record 25. While Clark accomplished the feat with one game still left to play, Gray reached the mark in 2020 while appearing in just three games.<\/p>\n

Gray also ranks third on the list with 18 assists in 2019, while fellow Aces guard Jewell Loyd ranks fourth with 15 in 2020 and Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> guard Kelsey Plum<\/a> ranks fifth with 14 in 2024. Each player achieved those totals in just three qualifying tournament games.<\/p>\n

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Clark and Team USA will face off against Spain on Tuesday at 5:00 p.m. ET.<\/p>\n

Related: Caitlin Clark Makes Health Announcement After Team USA Debut<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Athlon Sports<\/a> on Mar 16, 2026, where it first appeared in the WNBA<\/a> section. Add Athlon Sports as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caitlin Clark and the United States women’s basketball team moved to 4-0 at the 2026 FIBA World Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":659065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[49],"tags":[1503,233,15535,213052,234,1379,15537,5610,34429,4144,1488,134733,279042,1521,62,1348,67,132,68,1514,232],"class_list":["post-659064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-atlanta-dream","tag-caitlin-clark","tag-chelsea-gray","tag-fiba-world-cup","tag-indiana-fever","tag-iowa-hawkeyes","tag-jewell-loyd","tag-kelsey-plum","tag-kiki-iriafen","tag-las-vegas-aces","tag-los-angeles-sparks","tag-megan-gustafson","tag-qualifying-tournament","tag-rhyne-howard","tag-sports","tag-team-usa","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-washington-mystics","tag-wnba"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116237347565183025","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=659064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/659064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/659065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=659064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=659064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=659064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}