South Carolina, Iowa reach NCAA women’s basketball championship game

CLEVELAND — It’s unfinished business for South Carolina and Iowa in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

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Both teams are heading to Sunday’s championship game after victories in their Final Four games on Friday. Unbeaten South Carolina, the No. 1 overall seed in this year’s tournament, defeated North Carolina State 78-59 to reach the title game for the second time in three years. Iowa, despite player of the year Caitlin Clark struggling in the first half, held off Connecticut 71-69 to advance to the final for the second consecutive season.

Both teams, the top seeds in their respective brackets, will meet Sunday at 3 p.m. EDT on ABC to decide the championship.

South Carolina was unbeaten and a heavy favorite in last year’s Final Four but lost to the Hawkeyes in the semifinals, while the Gamecocks fell to LSU in the 2023 title game.

The Gamecocks (37-0) were led by Kamilla Cardoso, who had 22 points and 11 rebounds despite missing the last 1:39 of the first half with an injury, The Athletic reported. South Carolina, which is 108-3 over the past three seasons, broke open the game in the second half after clinging to a 32-31 lead at the intermission.

“I knew she was going to be OK,” South Carolina guard Ashlyn Watkins told reporters after the game. “Kamilla is a warrior. She’s not going to let an injury like that affect her. She’s going to push and be ready for Sunday.”

The Gamecocks opened the third quarter on a 16-5 run and never looked back, ESPN reported. They outscored North Carolina State (31-7) 29-6.

“Coach told us that was a six-point quarter for them,” South Carolina guard Te-Hina Paopao said. “We were just, like, shocked because it didn’t feel like that. It felt like we were just out there being locked in on offense and defense. And we just played the game we know how to play.

“They punched us in the mouth in the third quarter,” Wolfpack guard Aziaha James told reporters.

The Iowa-UConn was supposed to be a battle between Clark and the Huskies’ Paige Bueckers, but their teammates were the determining factor.

Clark finished with 21 points after dropping 41 against defending champion LSU in the Elite 8. Bueckers had 17 points.

Hannah Stuelke led the Hawkeyes (34-4) with 23 points, only the second time all season that Clark did not lead Iowa in scoring, ESPN reported. Stuelke was the team’s leading scorer in a Feb. 8 game against Penn State when she scored a career-high 47 points.

Aaliyah Edwards had 17 points for UConn but was called for an illegal screen against Gabbie Marshall with 3.9 seconds to play and Iowa holding a precarious one-point lead, The Athletic reported. That ended a rally by UConn, which had trailed by nine points with 5:42 to play.

The Huskies (33-6) were attempting to reach their 13th NCAA final; UConn has won 11 championships and last reached the title game in 2022, when they lost to South Carolina, according to ESPN.

The Gamecocks have reached the Final Four the last four seasons and are seeking their third national title in seven years.

“South Carolina has been the top of the top,” Clark told reporters. “They’re in a different league. We’re going to do everything we can to try to be right there with them. But, yeah, I think the biggest thing is enjoy this tonight and we’ll go over the scout early in the morning.”

“Going from last year, we didn’t make it to this level. I feel like it’s unfinished business,” South Carolina guard Raven Johnson said. “We’ve got one more game, and we can’t let down right now because we didn’t come this far just to come this far. So we have a mission. We came here for one reason, to get a national championship.”

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