Iowa guard Caitlin Clark, left, gestures to an official in the first half of an NCAA college basketball game against Ohio State, Sunday, Jan. 21, 2024, in Columbus, Ohio. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki) Credit: AP/Sue Ogrocki

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Caitlin Clark said she was “OK” after she was accidentally knocked down by a fan running onto the court after No. 2 Iowa was upset by No. 18 Ohio State on Sunday.

The Iowa superstar, who scored 45 points in the Hawkeyes’ 100-92 overtime loss, was running off the court with her head down when a female fan, trying to film the on-court celebration, banged into her. She fell to the floor as personnel and teammates rushed to her aid.

“I was just trying to exit the court as quickly as possible, so I started running and I was absolutely just hammered by somebody trying to run onto the court,” Clark said. “Basically blindsided and, you know, kind of scary, could have caused a pretty serious injury to me and knocked the wind out of me. But luckily my teammates kind of picked me up and got me off the court. Their AD already came and apologized to me, so I really appreciate that.”

Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith went to the Hawkeyes’ locker room and apologized to Clark and Iowa coach Lisa Bluder. Buckeyes coach Kevin McGuff also apologized.

“[Clark] had such a spectacular performance today, and she’s such a great player and that should never happen,’’ he said. “And so I feel really badly about it and hopefully it doesn’t affect her moving forward. But that is extremely unfortunate.”

Bluder said Clark also was harassed while leaving the court.

“You know, it’s unfortunate the game ended that way and Caitlin gets taken out on the floor,” a visibly angry Bluder said. “Gets some inappropriate words yelled at her by fans, by students. That just should not happen, it should not happen. Our players should be safe, they should be able to walk off the floor. That’s very disappointing.”

More than 18,000 people were in attendance, which was the most ever to watch a women’s basketball game at Ohio State.

Cotie McMahon had a career-high 33 points and 12 rebounds as Ohio State (15-3, 6-1) snapped a 15-game winning streak for the Hawkeyes (18-2, 7-1 Big Ten). She had 13 points in the fourth quarter and eight in overtime.

Ohio State outscored Iowa 42-22 after Iowa went ahead 70-58 with 8:55 left in regulation.

Clark scored all nine of Iowa’s overtime points.

Jacy Sheldon had 24 points and seven rebounds for Ohio State.

“It’s a huge win for the program,” McGuff said.“We beat an incredible team with one of the best players to ever play our sport, and we did it in front of 18,000 people. So hopefully the significance is we can really build on that with the momentum.”