By Okon Ekpenyong, with SportzKelz

Iowa’s Caitlin Clark’s legendary performance on Friday, March 31st in the semi-final game at the American Airlines Center in Dallas against South Carolina had Iowa heading for its first NCAA Women’s Basketball program in history. The championship was on Sunday, April 2, 2023, against LSU.

The Big Ten conference sent seven teams to this year’s postseason, including Iowa, which represented the conference in the championship game. Iowa, Maryland, and Ohio State all played in the elite eight for a chance to advance to the final four, but only Iowa advanced after defeating Louisville. Maryland lost a tough match to South Carolina, and OSU was playing its first elite game since 1993. Only Maryland’s 2006 team, Purdue’s 1999 team, and Rutgers’ 1982 team won it all, and Maryland is the most successful team, having reached six semifinals.

LSU, who defeated Virginia Tech, also played in their first-ever title game for the program. They won 73-71 to advance. Clark deserved the Naismith and AP Player of the Year awards and other accolades because she has been sensational to watch all season.

The rest of the country picked South Carolina to win it all, and who could blame them because, offensively and defensively, they’ve been dominant all season. However, Iowa’s Crowd, which outnumbered that of South Carolina, knew that this year’s team was something special, led by their Naismith National Player of the year.

The defeat in the hands of Iowa Hawkeyes ended South Carolina Gamecock’s 42-game winning streak dating back to last year. “I hope they saw the grittiness of an undefeated team, and I hope they want to learn a lot more about, not just us, LSU and what Kim Mulkey has done this season,” South Carolina Head Coach Dawn Staley said.

Clark’s dominance on both hands of the floor continued throughout the game, frustrating Gamecock’s offense, and defense. The crowd called Clark’s name every time she touched the ball.

“Everybody did their role. That’s what our team is about knowing your role, doing your part, and showing up every day”, Clark said.

After the first quarter, Iowa had a 22-13 lead, primarily due to the team finding multiple ways to slow down SC Ayliah Boston, last year’s Naismith National Player of the year, who managed only eight points in the game.

Additionally, they held SC Senior Guard B Beal to only three points, and this is the kind of player who can drop at least twenty points a game.

The quarter did end with Clark scoring eleven points and Iowa’s Senior Center Monika Czinano scoring six points.

A nine-point lead for Iowa in the first quarter at around 1:22 minutes was one of the different markers to help the team get off to a hot start, and SC’s ability to take over the lead in the second quarter at 3:09 kept them in it. South Carolina rebounded in the second quarter, scoring 24-16 to cut Iowa’s lead to 38-37, thanks to SC Senior Guard Cooke’s incredible effort, scoring nine points previously and nine in the second quarter.

Iowa Center, Monika Czinano, said the credit goes out to her teammates when asked what it was like to be part of this game, knowing how much attention it received. “The confidence they have in me is unreal. They find me in positions where I am the most effective, and they do it a game in and out all the time,”.

“During half-time, we talked about 20 more minutes of basketball to beat South Carolina, and you’ve got a memory for a lifetime, and they did it”, Iowa’s Coach Lisa Bluder said.

3rd quarter:

Both teams traded baskets in the third quarter, keeping the place on its toes, with Iowa going on an eight-point run around 7:27 minutes and South Carolina going on a six-point run around 3:21 minutes. Despite cutting the lead to three on several occasions, South Carolina never took the “lead” in the quarter. Clark finished 0-4 from beyond the arc but scored six points going 3-8 for Iowa. Iowa’s Center Czinano added six points, making all four of her free throws, and made a layup assisted by McKenna Warnock with four seconds left in the third quarter.

After the layup, a true instant classic ignited the Iowa crowd and everyone watching. It was a challenging quarter for the team offensively, but Kamillia Cardoso coming off the bench and shooting 3-3 helped tremendously. That challenge is partly due to Iowa’s defensive performance, which limited SC Brea Beal’s scoring only three points throughout the game and Boston finishing with eight points.

“Some of our shots didn’t fall tonight. Sometimes we could put them on the free-throw line, which wasn’t going both ways,” Boston said.

At the beginning of the fourth quarter, everyone was on their feet, with their cellphones out, because the game could have gone one way or another. South Carolina would have stayed undefeated and faced LSU for a chance to defend their title. It would have been a heartbreaker for Iowa had their season ended in a loss, but it would have been a promising one, given all their achievements.

The Gamecocks reclaimed the lead 60-59 to start the fourth quarter, but Iowa quickly responded. The teams traded back in this quarter; both made their free throws, turned the ball over six times, and shot a combined eleven threes, with South Carolina making 2-5 and Iowa making 2-6 from beyond the arc.

The South Carolina Gamecocks were one of the top defensive teams in the country, as evidenced by their 49-25 outrebounding of Iowa.

Their offense was also more potent than Iowa’s, as they had a 46-38 point difference in the paint, won the second chance attempt 24-8, and 38 of their points came from their bench, whereas Iowa only had six. Despite this, they couldn’t stop Caitlin Clark, who made all six free throws and 5-17 three-point shots, finishing with 15-31 shooting.

“Clark was so skilled at passing the ball, and we miscommunicated a bit about how to stop her defensively,” said the South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley.

“When playing someone like Caitlin, you lose your spacing out there and lose who’s good where.”

Historic updates:

* Coach Kim Mulky helped LSU advance to its first NCAA Championship title game in program history with a 79-72 win over Virginia Tech in her second season as head coach.

*LSU’s coach won three NCAA championships at Baylor and is going for a fourth now at LSU.

* More than 19,000 fans attended the semifinal games on Friday.

* Clark is the first player in the history of the Division 1 Women’s Tournament to have back to back forty points games.

* She is the sixth Division one women’s basketball player to score more than 1000 points in one season.

* It was her 13th game this season, scoring over 30 points, which is the most in NCAA this year.

* Virginia Tech’s Amoore broke the tournament record with 23 three-point made despite her team losing to LSU.

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