Sunday's win over Southern Indiana marked a milestone victory for Michelle Clark-Heard.
The fifth-year University of Cincinnati women's basketball coach earned her 250th career win in the 99-57 rout at Fifth Third Arena.
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"I am humbled and honored to be recognized with my 250th win as a head coach," Clark-Heard told The Enquirer. "But it has never been about the recognition for me. It has always been about the love for the game that has given me so much."
Four Cincinnati players scored in double figures against the Screaming Eagles (5-5), including a game-high 19 points by Mya Jackson and 15 points, eight rebounds, four assists, two steals and two blocks by former Loveland High School standout Jillian Hayes.
The 99 points by the Bearcats (7-5) marked the most for the team under Clark-Heard, who took over the program in 2018. Cincinnati hasn't scored more than 99 points since Nov. 25, 2003, when then-UC coach Laurie Pirtle's club defeated Charleston Southern, 105-60.
Clark-Heard was on the Cincinnati bench that year after Pirtle hired her as one of her assistants.
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"Every last one of those (250) wins started from someone seeing something in me first and foremost," Clark-Heard said. "For that I have to thank my college coach Paul Sanderford who gave me my first shot as a college coach."
Sanderford, a member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame, coached Clark-Heard at Western Kentucky, where she was a four-year letter winner from 1987-90 and helped lead the Lady Hilltoppers to four NCAA Tournament appearances, a pair of Sun Belt Conference Tournament championships (1988-89) and two regular-season conference titles (1989-90).
Clark-Heard later joined Sanderford's staff at Nebraska before joining Pirtle at Cincinnati.
"Michelle had sent her resume in because we had an opening," Pirtle told The Enquirer in November 2020. "So I called Paul, and I trust Paul, and told him the kind of person with whom I'd like to work, and he just raved about her. Even though she was young, in the sense of coaching, he just said, 'She would work great with you.' So I brought her in and interviewed her, and we just clicked."
With Clark-Heard now on her staff for the 2002-03 season, Pirtle saw three of her players – K.B. Sharp, Valerie King and Debbie Merrill – earn a first-team All-Conference USA selection. Sharp was the first Cincinnati player ever to play in the WNBA.
Clark-Heard left Cincinnati to become the head coach at Kentucky State in 2005. After posting a 24-32 record (19-9 in 2006-07) in two years, she returned to her alma mater.
In six seasons at Western Kentucky, Clark-Heard reached four NCAA tournaments, won four conference tournament championships and two regular-season conference titles while posting 154 victories (154-48). She became the second-fastest Western Kentucky women's coach to reach 100 victories.
Clark-Heard is now 250-139 in her career (72-59 at Cincinnati). She and Pirtle, who was inducted into the UC Athletics Hall of Fame in September, are the only Bearcats women's basketball coaches with 250 career wins.
"Again, thank you to every single person that has had something to do with this amazing accomplishment," Clark-Heard said.
Cincinnati will look to keep the momentum going Wednesday at Northern Kentucky (6-4). Tipoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. on ESPN+.
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