The South Carolina Gamecocks beat out the Iowa Hawkeyes 87-75, finishing with an undefeated season (39-0) and yet another NCAA women’s championship title.
The Gamecocks were 6.5 point favorites to win the title, which became the first game the Iowa Hawkeyes were projected to lose throughout their entire season.
This championship game set the all-time high for women’s basketball viewership with almost 19 million viewers watching the game overall.
The number of viewers peaked at 24 million watchers throughout the game making it the most watched sporting event since 2019 (with exceptions made to football and the Olympics).
In fact, the women’s game surpassed the viewers of the men’s NCAA championship by several million for the first time ever, seemingly having to do with Iowa star Caitlin Clark.
Iowa started off strong in the first quarter with a 10-0 run, including a signature far back three-pointer from Clark to get the crowd going.
The Gamecocks couldn’t get any rebounds off of Iowa and their defense was just starting to catch up to the speed of the game towards the end of the first, so Iowa took the lead 27-20 going into the second quarter.
The second quarter the Gamecocks started picking up their game. Kamila Cardoso started making some clutch rebounds and shots that rattled the Hawkeyes.
“Cardoso has 17 rebounds, they have 51 as a team and we have 29… hard to win a basketball game like that,” Clark said.
South Carolina’s 6 ft. 7 in. senior center simply towered over Iowa’s frontcourt players, and finished with 15 points, 17 rebounds, and 3 blocks throughout the game.
They quickly caught up to the Hawkeyes after Cardoso nailed a lay-up giving the Gamecocks their first lead of the night (36-34).
The second quarter ended with the Gamecocks leading 47-46 against the Hawkeyes.
The second half started with Raven Johnson quickly stealing the ball from Clark and taking it for an easy lay-up. This started a 9-0 run for the Gamecocks that ultimately led to their continuous lead throughout the game and overall victory.
The South Carolina defense was really getting to Clark during the second half making her “unavailable” for many Iowa offensive plays, which seemingly slowed them significantly down.
Still, Clark scored or assisted on over 60% of Iowa’s points made throughout the entirety of the game.
Tessa Johnson shined during the second half, scoring a career high of 19 points throughout the game to power South Carolina to an almost assured victory. They were still up leading 68-59 heading into the last quarter of the NCAA championship game.
Iowa did not give up however, players like Gabbie Marshall and Kate Martin really started to come alive this last quarter with several last minute baskets to keep the game alive and shed a glimmer of hope for the Hawkeyes.
This was not enough for Iowa, however, South Carolina fought back and kept their lead to win their third NCAA championship and keep their undefeated season.
They have won 109 games and lost only three times over the last three seasons.
They now have become the 10th team in history to complete an unbeaten season and the fifth program to do so overall, joining the University of Connecticut, Baylor, Tennessee, and Texas.
