South Carolina secures perfection

In one of the most highly-anticipated women’s title games in recent memory, the South Carolina Gamecocks beat the Iowa Hawkeyes 87-75, winning their third national title and ending their season a perfect 38-0.

Kamilla Cardoso was the fulcrum of everything South Carolina did. She ended the game with 15 points and 17 rebounds, while Chole Kitts also was a double-double machine for the Gamecocks with 11 points and 10 boards. The freshmen were another huge factor in South Carolina’s victory. Tessa Johnson scored a team-high 19 points and MiLaysia Fulwiley added nine points. The South Carolina bench outscored Iowa’s 37-0.

For Iowa, Caitlin Clark certainly delivered. She ended the night with 30 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Our title game preview suggested Clark would need 30-plus points to win it all, and as tall of an order as that was, it proved true on Sunday: 30 points from Clark wasn’t enough. Clark wasn’t alone out there; three other Hawkeye starters were in double figures, but they couldn’t overcome the Gamecocks as South Carolina pulled away in the second half, as they often do.

To start, however, it was anyone’s game. Clark had 13 points midway through the opening quarter, with Iowa off to a 20-9 start. They ended the quarter up 27-20 behind 18 points from Clark. It looked like she was up to the challenge of beating the unbeaten.

In the second quarter, it was a back-and-forth affair, with both teams taking and re-taking the lead from the five-minute mark on. South Carolina took a slim three-point lead to the locker room, and two things were clear: Clark was going to keep pushing to stack up points and South Carolina was going to dominate the glass.

South Carolina is notorious for taking over during the second half of games. They did it against NC State in the Final Four, and they did so on Sunday, starting the third quarter on a 6-0 run. They ended the third up by nine points. In the final frame, Iowa never truly threatened. The closest they got was within five points with 3:03 left, but then South Carolina went on a 7-0 run to ice the game and put away Iowa once and for all, guaranteeing the program’s third national title overall and their second in the last three years.

Closing thoughts

It don’t mean a thing, if you ain’t got the ring.

Clark is a historic scorer, an incredible talent and has made a great game more visible. She’s also a loser. I have many qualms with “ringz culture” and using team accomplishments to justify or criticize an individual talent. But one aspect of it does have a good quality: it puts a ton of value on winning it all. That is, after all, the point of the competition, to win the game as a team. We over me. There may not be much more Clark could’ve done, but the fact is she lost and never won a title in college. She’ll now head to the WNBA where the path to a title will be even longer and more arduous, but more on that later.

For now, we need to commend South Carolina.

Undefeated is unbelievable, and given the team they had to beat to do it, this one might be the sweetest for head coach Dawn Staley and her team. She was emotional, tears in her eyes, struggling to speak. She had a rare moment displaying the agony of victory, understanding what it takes, what’s sacrificed and relishing the fruits of that labor.

There have been many great college programs before, like UConn, Tennessee, Notre Dame and Baylor, and now South Carolina is putting its name in the same air as those dynasties. The scary part? Staley might just be getting started. We have no way of knowing when the Gamecocks’ era will end, but it’s clear we’re living in it.