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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