Thankfully, it seems as though Caitlin Clark didn't suffer any serious injury after being blindsided by a fan storming the court on Sunday.
Iowa's star guard was knocked over by an unaware patron running onto the floor following Ohio State's thrilling 100-92 overtime victory over the No. 2 Hawkeyes.
"I'm OK, thank you," Clark said after the game. "Great environment, obviously. These are the kinds of games you love to play in, 18,000 people here. I can see they're storming the court, which was fine. Good for their students, great win for them. I was just trying to exit the court as quickly as possible so I started running. I was just absolutely hammered by somebody trying to run onto the court and basically blindsided."
Caitlin Clark injury after the Ohio State game pic.twitter.com/uLwtBmxF99
— DadsDontPlay (@Dadsdontplay) January 21, 2024
Fans poured onto the court at Value City Arena following the Buckeyes' victory, with an Ohio State women's basketball record of 18,660 fans in attendance to see the scarlet and gray take on the superstar Clark and Iowa.
One of those fans, who appeared to be holding their phone up to take a video of the pandemonium, collided with Clark as they were jogging off the floor.
After a few minutes on the ground, Clark was helped by teammates and security personnel back to Iowa's locker room following the collision.
Bluder first gave credit to Ohio State's team for its effort in the contest, but also expressed her anger at the situation postgame.
"It's unfortunate. Caitlin gets taken out on the floor, gets some inappropriate words yelled at her by fans, by students," Bluder said. "That just should not happen. It should not happen. Our players should be safe. They should be able to walk off the floor."
Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith came and apologized to both Clark and Iowa head coach Lisa Bluder afterward.
"I really appreciate that," Clark said. "And, you know, this is what comes with the territory. I'm sure they tried their best to do whatever they could, obviously it didn't work and that's disappointing. But just focus now on the game and ways we can get better."
Ohio State head coach Kevin McGuff opened his postgame press conference with an apology to Clark and Iowa's team about the incident.
"I want to apologize to her and their entire program," McGuff said. "She had such a spectacular performance today and she's such a great player. And that should never happen. So I feel really badly, hopefully she's OK and that doesn't affect her moving forward. But that's extremely unfortunate."
Clark racked up 45 points in a losing effort for Iowa against the Buckeyes.
McGuff said the fan got onto the court quicker than security was prepared for.
"I know we had security in place but the student apparently beat the security," McGuff said. "I really feel badly about that."
Ohio State women's basketball continues its season on Thursday at Illinois. The Buckeyes will rematch Iowa, this time on the road, to close their regular season on March 3.
