CLEVELAND — South Carolina and Iowa.
This system that has turn into the dominant drive in girls’s faculty basketball within the final decade. The program with the player, Caitlin Clark, who has turn into a drive of nature within the sport over her four-year profession.
This system, it seems, topped the participant.
South Carolina captured its third national title whereas turning into the tenth undefeated champion because of an 87-75 victory over the Hawkeyes. The Gamecocks end the season 38-0.
Iowa wished to copy what it did a yr in the past when it beat the undefeated Gamecocks within the Girls’s Closing 4, solely this time whereas additionally including this system’s first nationwide title. On high of that, the Hawkeyes wished to ship Clark, the all-time scoring chief in NCAA faculty basketball historical past, out with a title.
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Comply with alongside right here all through the afternoon for updates on the championship conflict in Cleveland:
South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso and Tessa Johnson had been two of the 4 gamers who performed in Sunday’s title sport to make the all-tournament crew. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and Hannah Stuelke additionally had been voted to the crew by chosen members of the media overlaying the occasion.
Connecticut’s Paige Bueckers additionally was selected.
South Carolina senior heart Kamilla Cardoso was voted because the Most Excellent Participant of the Girls’s Closing 4. Cardoso scored 15 factors and grabbed 17 rebounds within the championship sport.
Cardoso had 22 factors within the semifinal win over North Carolina State on Friday.
It’s going to take a miracle from Iowa’s Caitlin Clark to cease South Carolina at this level. The Gamecocks lead 87-75 with 53.5 seconds remaining within the nationwide championship sport.
South Carolina took an 85-75 lead with 1:28 remaining on a free throw by Raven Johnson. Iowa, in the meantime, has gone 3:05 of sport time and not using a rating.
Kamilla Cardoso’s putback with 2:27 remaining gave South Carolina an 83-75 lead. Then Cardoso got here up with a giant rebound on Iowa’s subsequent possession that allowed the Gamecocks to take advantage of the clock beneath the two-minute mark of the fourth quarter.
South Carolina’s lead was at 78-72 on the fourth-quarter media timeout with 4:39 remaining. Caitlin Clark’s level whole has hit 30 to tempo the Hawkeyes, whereas Tessa Johnson has come off the bench to attain 19 factors for the Gamecocks.
Iowa fell into 76-62 gap on Chloe Kitts’ put-back with 7:40 remaining. The Hawkeyes, although, scored the following eight factors to tug inside 76-70 with 6:43 remaining on Gabbie Marshall’s 3-point basket.
Add the identify of ahead Chloe Kitts to the checklist of South Carolina’s unsung heroes in opposition to Iowa. Kitts recorded a double-double when she turned her tenth rebound into two factors — giving her 11 — and a 76-62 Gamecocks lead with 7:40 remaining.
South Carolina heads into the ultimate 10 minutes of regulation holding onto a 68-59 lead over Iowa within the nationwide championship sport. The Gamecocks outscored the Hawkeyes 19-13 within the third quarter.
Caitlin Clark leads all scorers with 25 factors for Iowa. Tessa Johnson has scored 15 factors off the bench to guide South Carolina.
Tessa Johnson might not have been the South Carolina participant with that surname who first got here to thoughts coming into the nationwide title sport. Nevertheless, Johnson’s been enormous off the bench for the Gamecocks, together with a 3-point basket with 1:06 left within the third to present them a 68-57 lead.
That basket gave Johnson 15 factors within the sport.
South Carolina went from down 11 within the first quarter to up 10 within the third quarter. The Gamecocks took a 65-55 lead on Bree Corridor’s 3-point basket with 2:40 left within the third quarter.
The South Carolina lead was 57-53 on the third-quarter media timeout with 4:58 on the clock. Caitlin Clark was at 23 factors for Iowa, whereas Te-Hina Paopao and Kamilla Cardoso every had 11 factors for South Carolina.
Caitlin Clark’s jumper with 7:14 remaining within the third ended the Iowa scoring drought, which stretched again to the 53-second mark of the second quarter. That pulled Iowa inside 55-48.
Gabbie Marshall made it 55-51 with a 3-point basket for the Hawkeyes a minute later.
South Carolina did not let the halftime break decelerate its roll. The Gamecocks scored the primary six factors of the third quarter to open up a 55-46 lead on Iowa with 7:59 remaining within the quarter.
With the 5 factors to finish the primary half, the Gamecocks are on an 11-0 run.
Chloe Kitts scored 4 of these six factors to present her 9 factors to go along with seven rebounds. Te-Hina Paopao had the basket to push the result in 9, giving her 11 factors.
South Carolina spent a lot of the first half making an attempt to climb out of assorted deficits in opposition to Iowa. Nevertheless, Te-Hina Paopao’s tying 3-point basket and Raven Johnson’s steal and rating within the ultimate 25 seconds pushed the Gamecocks to a 49-46 lead at halftime.
Caitlin Clark had 21 factors within the first half for Iowa, together with 4 3-point baskets. Kate Martin added 11 factors for the Hawkeyes.
Kamilla Cardoso was the Gamecocks’ main scoring with 11 factors. South Carolina had a 22-0 benefit in factors off the bench.
Caitlin Clark’s fourth 3-point basket, which gave Iowa a 44-40 lead with 1:54 remaining within the second quarter, was her 2 hundredth 3-point basket of the season. That shot has opened up a 38-shot margin between her and the earlier co-record holder in NCAA Division I faculty basketball, males’s or girls’s: Steph Curry, who had 162.
Clark has already matched her level whole from Friday’s semifinal, with 21 factors with lower than a minute left within the half.
Iowa has been capable of reply South Carolina each time it appears to tie or, on this case, take the lead. This time, it was Hawkeye sophomore Hannah Stuelke’s 3-point play wrapped across the 4:12 media timeout within the second quarter, placing Iowa again in entrance 37-36.
Stuelke would do it once more after Chloe Kitts tied the sport at 37-37 with a free throw on South Carolina’s subsequent possession. She would get fouled on the rebound of the missed second free throw and hit two free throws of her personal to place Iowa up 39-37 with 3:51 remaining within the second quarter.
South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso gave her crew its first lead of the sport with a layup with 4:56 remaining. That put the Gamecocks in entrance 36-34.
The basket gave Cardoso, the 6-foot-7 All-American, 11 factors for the sport.
Tessa Johnson has been central to South Carolina now twice tying the sport within the second quarter. Johnson’s 3-point basket with 6:01 left within the quarter tied the sport at 34-34.
Johnson had 4 factors within the Gamecocks’ opening 7-0 run to tie it at 27-27. She has seven factors within the quarter and 9 for the sport.
South Carolina and Iowa had been tied for all of 21 seconds. That is how lengthy it took the Hawkeyes to re-take the lead at 30-27 on Sydney Affolter’s 3-point basket.
Iowa was the quick starter within the first quarter. South Carolina responded to open the second.
Kamilla Cardoso’s 3-point play with 8:21 left within the quarter tied the sport at 27-27. It was a part of a 7-0 Gamecock run to begin the quarter.
Iowa took a 27-20 lead into the second quarter, ending the quarter on 5-0 burst. Caitlin Clark hit a 3-point basket with 20 seconds remaining to supply the margin.
Clark has three 3-point baskets on her technique to 18 factors already. She scored simply 21 factors within the semifinal win over Connecticut.
After falling behind by the biggest deficit its confronted all season to open the sport, South Carolina started to push again. The Gamecocks put collectively an 11-2 run to tug inside 22-20 with 1:22 remaining within the first quarter on Tessa Johnson’s basket.
Actor Jason Sudeikis has been a daily on the Iowa girls’s basketball crew’s event video games. The star of “Ted Lasso” was proven on the scoreboard through the first-quarter media timeout.
South Carolina trailed Iowa 20-9 on the media timeout with 4:45 remaining within the first quarter. A part of that was Iowa hitting 5 of its final seven pictures from the ground, but in addition the Gamecocks’ personal lack of ability to make pictures.
The No. 1 crew within the nation has missed 10 of its first 14 pictures, a 29% taking pictures share. That is how South Carolina fallen into the largest deficit of the season at 11 factors.
South Carolina’s aggressiveness defending Iowa’s Caitlin Clark has value them a pair of fouls on 3-point pictures. Clark has twice earned three free throws as a result of she was fouled taking pictures from the perimeter.
Clark has gone 5-of-6 from the foul line on these two journeys, the latter of these opening up a 20-9 Hawkeye lead with 5:34 remaining within the first quarter.
Caitlin Clark’s second 3-point basket of the sport gave Iowa an 18-7 lead with 6:20 remaining within the first quarter. Whereas her first was a foot or so from 3-point line, this one was from the Girls’s Closing 4 brand at midcourt.
The Iowa Hawkeyes got here flying out of the gate early, leaping out to a 10-0 lead with 7:27 remaining within the first quarter. Caitlin Clark capped the run with a 3-point basket, however that was her solely basket of the burst.
Kate Martin had the primary 5 factors on a 3-pointer and a jumper. Sydney Affolter added a basket as effectively.
The primary basket of the sport was a 3-point basket by Iowa. Las Vegas would’ve in all probability have given you good odds on that.
Solely it wasn’t Caitlin Clark hitting it. It was Kate Martin, who drained the 3-pointer 24 seconds into the sport for a 3-0 Hawkeye lead.
South Carolina could also be No. 1 within the nation, however Iowa is No. 1 when it comes to share of followers inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse. At the very least 60% of the gang for this championship sport is sporting black and gold.
It is obvious that each North Carolina State and Connecticut followers offered their tickets to Iowa supporters after Friday’s semifinals. Each of their sections have been taken over by the Hawkeyes.
Here is the beginning lineup for South Carolina in opposition to Iowa:
Here is the beginning lineup for Iowa in opposition to South Carolina:
ABC will broadcast Sunday’s national championship game. In Northeast Ohio, that can be on WEWS-TV Channel 5.
Final yr’s NCAA Match featured the most-watched Final Four in the sport’s history when Iowa handed South Carolina a uncommon loss after which lost a nail-biter to LSU in the championship.
Right here is the women’s schedule:
Yow will discover the entire women’s March Madness bracket here.
Chris Easterling might be reached at ceasterling@thebeaconjournal.com. Comply with him on X at @ceasterlingABJ.