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How Dawn Staley, South Carolina beat Caitlin Clark, Iowa for women’s national championship
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South Carolina beats Iowa for national title
CLEVELAND — Dawn Staley and South Carolina have done it again.
For the first time since 2016, the NCAA has an undefeated national champion in the Gamecocks. South Carolina capped its perfect season (38-0) with an 87-75 win over Iowa, avenging last year’s Final Four loss that ended an undefeated season.
As has been the case all season, South Carolina’s depth was on full display Sunday. The Gamecocks had four players in double figures led by Tessa Johnson with 19 points. Star center Kamilla Cardoso had 15 points and 17 rebounds, Te-Hina Paopao had 14 points and Chloe Kitts had 11 points and 10 rebounds. South Carolina guards Raven Johnson and Bree Hall may not have been in double figures, but they played a major hand in attempting to slow down Iowa star Caitlin Clark, who had 30 points on 10-of-28 shooting. Thirteen of those points came in a two-minute span of the first quarter.
That scoring spree helped the Hawkeyes jump out to a 20-9 lead early.
Iowa jumped out to a hot start, leading the Gamecocks 10-0 in the first two and a half minutes and then led 20-9 on the back of 13 straight points from Clark.
It was like deja vu for the Gamecocks, who trailed by nine at the end of the first quarter in the Final Four last year. This time, though, South Carolina went on a run of its own and took a three-point lead at halftime.
South Carolina pushed its lead to as high as 14 in the fourth quarter before Iowa started a comeback of its own. The Hawkeyes cut the lead to five with 3:37 left to play, led by Clark and Sydney Affolter.
But South Carolina pushed the lead back to double digits soon after that, helping Staley win her second championship in three years.
As for Iowa and Clark, this will be the end of an era as Clark is entering the WNBA Draft. Clark will be remembered as one of the best the sport has ever seen. She’s the best scorer in NCAA history and led Iowa to back-to-back NCAA championship appearances, but came up just short in both years. In 17 career NCAA Tournament games, Clark scored a record 492 points, breaking the all-time tournament mark in the first quarter Sunday.
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Iowa-UConn ratings set record
Another Iowa women’s basketball game, another new record for the sport when it comes to viewership.
Iowa’s 71-69 win over UConn on Friday night in Cleveland set a new record for the most-watched women’s college basketball game in history. The game was viewed by 14.2 million people and peaked at 17 million viewers. Chad Leistikow of the Des Moines Register was the first to report the news.
This game tops the previous all-time viewership record, which was set on Monday when Iowa’s win over LSU averaged 12.3 million viewers and peaked at 16 million viewers.
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Iowa-UConn Final Four matchup breaks record for most-watched women’s college basketball game
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Controversial late-game foul against UConn’s Aaliyah Edwards draws ire
In Friday night’s Final Four, UConn trailed Iowa 70-64 with 2:14 to play, a chance at returning to the national title game to face South Carolina dwindling. But the Huskies rallied with two stops and two scores. When KK Arnold stole the ball with nine seconds to play, UConn was down just one with a shot for the win.
Instead, the Huskies never took that shot. After a UConn timeout, Aaliyah Edwards set a pick on the wing for Paige Bueckers to fly off and potentially take the game-winning jumper, but Edwards was whistled for a moving screen with 3.9 seconds left. The turnover gave the Hawkeyes the ball back on their side of the court, and the Huskies would never regain possession, losing 71-69.
“I wasn’t given an explanation,” Edwards said after the loss. “There was no real time to get an explanation. From my point of view, it was pretty clean.”
UConn coach Geno Auriemma and the Huskies bench were immediately distraught, and social media erupted in their defense. Stars from the WNBA and NBA insisted a referee could not make a call of that magnitude so late in the game, relying on the truism that a certain amount of contact has to be allowed down the stretch.
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Controversial late-game foul against UConn’s Aaliyah Edwards draws ire: ‘I wasn’t given an explanation’
South Carolina-Iowa odds
South Carolina is a 6.5-point favorite to win the 2024 Women’s NCAA Tournament championship game against Iowa, according to BetMGM.
South Carolina opened the season at +290 to win the national title at BetMGM and was a -135 favorite to win the NCAA Tournament when the bracket was announced on Selection Sunday. Iowa opened the season with the second-best odds to win the national title at +600.
Austin Mock’s projection model pegs South Carolina as a 6.5-point favorite with an average score of 84-77.5. The Gamecocks won in 70.7 percent of the simulations.
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South Carolina favored against Iowa in Women’s NCAA Tournament championship game Sunday
How Iowa got here
(Photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
CLEVELAND – Gabbie Marshall knew it immediately.
The moment she ran into UConn forward Aaliyah Edwards, Marshall knew she moved and that an illegal screen should be called.
Just moments later it was and with three seconds left on the clock, and Iowa clinging to a one-point lead, the game was all but sealed. Iowa beat UConn 71-69 and is now preparing for its second straight national championship game, while UConn is going home in heartbreaking fashion.
All Marshall, who has made big defensive stops for Iowa all year, could do is rejoice.
“I was so happy and excited,” Marshall said. “I knew in my mind that it was. It was her third moving screen of the game, we knew it was a huge moment.”
In a game that was touted as Iowa’s Caitlin Clark versus UConn’s Paige Bueckers, two of the last three national players of the year, the result was about much more than them.
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Caitlin Clark leads Iowa past UConn to second consecutive national championship appearance
How South Carolina got here
(Photo: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
The top-ranked and undefeated Gamecocks defeated third-seeded NC State 78-59 in the first Final Four game Friday night. The win sends South Carolina back to the national championship for the second time in three years, after winning it all in 2022.
The Gamecocks were led by star post player Kamilla Cardoso, who had 22 points and 11 rebounds despite missing the last 1:39 of the first half with an apparent leg injury.
“You play to your strengths, Kamilla is a strength of ours,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “She played with a desire to win. She asked for the ball a couple times as well.”
The Gamecocks led by five before Cardoso went down, but that lead was cut to just one point at halftime.
“I knew she was going to be okay,” South Carolina forward Ashlyn Watkins said. “Kamilla is a warrior. She’s not going to let an injury like that affect her. She’s going to push and be ready for Sunday.”
Cardoso returned after halftime and South Carolina took control of the game right away, jumping out to a 10-1 run in the third quarter. The Gamecocks outscored NC State 29-6 in the third quarter to break the game open.
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South Carolina routs NC State to advance to second national championship in last 3 seasons