Hawkeyes’ win over Ohio State draws top women’s basketball regular-season TV rating since 1999

Caitlin Clark’s record-setting game for Iowa against Ohio State on Sunday attracted more than 4 million television viewers at its peak and was the most watched women’s regular-season basketball game since 1999, Fox Sports announced Tuesday.

Clark scored 35 points and passed Pete Maravich as the NCAA Division I overall career scoring leader during the Hawkeyes’ 93-83 win.

Average viewership was 3.39 million and reached a high of 4.42 million late in the second half. Clark set the record with two free throws just before halftime. No women’s regular-season game on any network had more viewers since 3.88 million tuned in for UConn-Tennessee in January 1999, according to Sports Media Watch.

The game was the second-most watched college basketball game of the season, trailing only the 5.18 million who saw the Michigan State-Arizona men’s game that followed an NFL Thanksgiving game on Fox, SMW said.

Ohio State-Iowa surpassed the 3.01 million who watched the Boston Celtics’ 140-88 rout of the Golden State Warriors on ABC on Sunday.

According to FOX Sports, women’s college basketball is now averaging a bigger audience than men’s college basketball on the network (981,000 vs 946,000). Women’s college basketball is up 48% on FOX this season and up 60% across all national networks.

For more Hawkeyes coverage, follow @BlakeHornTV and @HawkeyeHQ on Twitter and Facebook. You can find Hawkeye Headquarters at HawkeyeHQ.com all season.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WHBF - OurQuadCities.com.