By JOHN BOHNENKAMP

IOWA CITY — The timeout didn’t come.

Caitlin Clark had just put her signature on history with a shot that has looked like the rest that had defined her career, and she was waiting for her coach to call a timeout to let the cacophony of a jammed Carver-Hawkeye Arena cascade over the moment.

Except Iowa coach Lisa Bluder didn’t get the timeout called before the next possession.

“I honestly thought Coach Bluder was going to call a timeout before I had to play defense,” said Clark. “But she didn’t, so I had to go play defense.”

Finally, after Iowa got the ball back, Bluder called the timeout, and Clark could catch her breath.

Clark became the NCAA’s women’s basketball career scoring leader at 3,569 points in the fourth-ranked Hawkeyes’ 106-89 win over Michigan on Thursday night. She needed eight points to pass Kelsey Plum at the top of the list, and she got 49, a new program single-game record.

Clark got this out of the way early. She had a layup nine seconds into the game, then a 3-pointer 30 seconds later.

And then her signature shot — a logo 3-pointer from the deep left side. Thirty-five feet from history, and the shot was as pure as so many she’s made from that same area code.

“It was absolutely perfect for her to go over and reach this record with the logo three,” Bluder said.

“I mean, you all knew I was going to shoot a logo three for the record,” Clark joked. 

Clark has made a steady climb up the list of leaders, knocking off legends and names of the players she watched growing up.

The pursuit has consumed the most recent part of the season — as Clark ascended the list, the media attention grew — but this has often felt like a season that hasn’t been allowed to breathe long before Clark started edging her way to the top.

The expectations were there as soon as the buzzer sounded on Iowa’s national championship game loss to LSU in Dallas last April. Clark was coming back, as was almost all of the supporting cast. Home games were sellouts before the summer arrived.

And so there has never been an escape for this team, a show that has captivated audiences home and away, bringing an attention that can be stifling.

College basketball seasons tend to grow organically — November and December are about figuring out lineups and rotations, January and February bring the crucible of conference play, then March and April are when it’s one and done.

This regular season, Bluder said on Wednesday, has felt like the postseason from the beginning. There has never been a relaxing atmosphere anywhere, even in road arenas of programs that aren’t Big Ten title contenders or have no postseason hopes.

“We’re facing everybody’s best promotions,” Bluder said of the road games. “Everybody’s best shot every single night. And then you combine that with the atmospheres that we’re facing, it does feel like an NCAA tournament and that can be taxing on you physically, mentally and emotionally.”

Even Iowa’s first preseason game was a performance for history — 55,646 fans showed up for the Crossover At Kinnick game against DePaul at Iowa’s Kinnick Stadium, a new attendance record for women’s basketball.

So, go back to Bluder’s timeout. It was about letting Clark, who has been deluged with media requests since last spring, take in what she had accomplished, and letting her teammates enjoy their role in all of it.

“We didn’t really talk in the timeout,” Bluder said. “We all kind of sat in our thoughts, and I just wanted her to have some space to think about what she’d accomplished, and just to enjoy the moment.”

“Usually that’s not me,” she added. “I don’t burn timeouts for anything.”

Bluder noticed how Clark settled in after breaking the record. Clark had nine of Iowa’s first 15 field goals, and had assists on the other six. By the end of the night, Clark had 13 assists to go with her points, the 58th double-double of her career.

Clark tends to bask in the biggest games, and Bluder knows that.

“I think she does enjoy it,” Bluder said. “I mean, who doesn’t? If you work that hard at your craft. don’t you want to share it with everybody? Don’t you want to express it? Don’t you want to show what you’re capable of and what you’ve put so much time and effort and work into? So I think she absolutely enjoys it and I want all my players to enjoy it. I want them to love being out on that court and play with that passion and that excitement all the time.”

It was a typical Clark show — the scoring, the assists, the feistiness with officials, the celebrations after big shots.

It’s one the fans want to keep going.

“One more year,” they chanted at Clark, a senior who still has a year of eligibility granted by the NCAA for playing in the 2020-21 season during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I paid them,” Bluder said. “I thought it was a pretty good chant.”

The post-game commemoration of the record featured a video of Clark’s family, coaches and former teammates, a moment that Clark savored as she watched the video while leaning against the scorer’s table.

“I started crying watching the video, just because I’m just feeling so much gratitude and love,” she said.

The penmanship of history had been written with the ink of Clark’s signature shot, but she wants the show to keep going. There was a Big Ten title to chase, an NCAA tournament to play, a road to April yet to travel. The season was catching its breath — the Hawkeyes, 23-3 overall and 12-2 in the Big Ten get to go home this weekend, then come back to prepare for a road game against Indiana next Thursday that starts the final four-game regular-season stretch that finishes with a home game against Ohio State.

“We’ve got a lot more winning to do,” Clark shouted over the final roar of the night. “Let’s go.”

Photo: Iowa’s Caitlin Clark celebrates the 3-pointer that made her the NCAA’s all-time career scoring leader in women’s basketball. (Keith Gillett/Icon Sportswire)