This year’s NCAAW season came to an end during the long-awaited Iowa v. South Carolina game. 

The NCAAW Championship was held in Cleveland Ohio April 7th, 2024. After Iowa had a seven-point lead in the first quarter, leading 27-20 South Carolina stepped up, scoring forty-nine points in the first half beating Iowa 49-46. 

In the second quarter, South Carolina did a great job defending Caitlyn Clark, a potential number-one pick in the 2024 WNBA draft. After going on a 7-0 run and tying the game in the 2nd quarter, the game started to become more physical and aggressive going back and forth, with both teams playing elite defense. 

Caitlyn Clark however, struggled in the 2nd quarter. She was not able to score for eight to nine minutes, and Iowa started to crack down due to South Carolina’s defense. After getting blocked shots, Raven Johnson stole the ball from Caitlyn Clark to end the first half with a 49-46 lead. 

After, South Carolina started the 3rd quarter strong going on a 6-0 run. Caitlyn Clark and Iowa tried to cut out South Carolina’s hearts going on a 9-2 run and trying to storm back into the game. However, South Carolina started to catch fire from behind the 3-point line. However, South Carolina’s defense led to Iowa being scoreless for almost four minutes. 

In the fourth quarter, South Carolina’s Tessa Johnson extended their lead by eleven points. Tessa Johnson scored a career-high 19 points along with Kamila Cardoso’s double-double of 15 points and 17 rebounds, leading to South Carolina remaining undefeated, winning all 38 games and winning the NCAAW championship, defeating Iowa 87-75. 

South Carolina worked better as a team than Iowa did, a total of nine players in South Carolina scored points and only five players in Iowa scored. This was due to the five Iowa players who played the most minutes rather than using their bench players. 

Lisa Blunder, the Iowa head coach, claims “South Carolina was a tremendous basketball team”. Congratulations to South Carolina on 3 National championships.