South Carolina beats off challenge from Iowa and Catilin Clark to win NCAA women’s championship

The undefeated South Carolina Gamecocks beat Iowa on Sunday 87-75, at the NCAA women’s championship.

The Gamecocks’ victory is over Caitlin Clark last game in Iowa. In February, Clark became the all-time NCAA Division I scoring leader, breaking the late Pete Maravich’s 54-year-old record. Clark scored 30 points on Sunday.

South Carolina was 37-0 heading into Sunday’s game, becoming the first undefeated champion since UConn in 2016. Sunday marked their second national championship in three years and third in school history, according to CBS Sports.

With Dawn Staley leading a relentless attack from the sideline, the Gamecocks became the 10th Division I team to go through an undefeated season. And they accomplished the feat after losing all five starters from last season’s team that lost to Clark’s team in the state semifinals.

Clark did everything she could to lead the Hawkeyes to their first championship. She scored 30 points, including a championship-high 18 in the first quarter. She will go down as one of the greatest players in NCAA history. She rewrote the record books at Iowa (34-5), finishing as the leading career scorer in NCAA Division I history with 3,951 career points.

She hopes her legacy is defined not by failing to win two NCAA championship games, but rather by the millions of new fans she helped attract to the game and the countless young girls and boys she she inspired.

South Carolina has won three titles in the last eight years, including two of the last three, claiming status as women’s basketball’s latest dynasty. Staley became the fifth coach to win three national championships, joining Geno Auriemma, Pat Summitt, Kim Mulkey and Tara VanDerveer. The Gamecocks, who have won 109 of their last 112 games, became the first team since UConn in 2016 to go undefeated. South Carolina had a few scares throughout the season, but always found a way to win.

With most of the team returning next year, except for star center Kamilla Cardoso, Staley’s team is in a good position to continue this run. Tessa Johnson led South Carolina with 19 points. Cardoso had 15 points and 17 rebounds.