The NCAA women’s basketball series ended in Cleveland with a victory over South Carolina. Caitlin Clark, who broke all the records in the series, is now moving to the WNBA floors.
The American college basketball series NCAA women’s final ended in Cleveland with the victory of South Carolina. Having broken the series point record by Caitlin Clark star-studded Iowa bowed out to South Carolina, which had been undefeated all season, 75–87.
South Carolina has won 80 of its previous 79 games, the only loss coming last year to Iowa in the semifinals. Master coach Dawn Staley lost their entire starting five from last season for this season, but still the team stretched to an undefeated season.
Superstar Clark, 22, who built incredible hype around women’s basketball with his moves, scored 30 points and collected eight rebounds in the match. In all, she scored 3,951 points over four years of college, a record for both men and women.
He averaged 31.6 points per game this season and averaged 28.4 points in 139 games for his entire college career.
Clark, who also dragged Iowa to the finals last year with her catches, will not use her chance for a fifth year in college basketball, but will participate in the WNBA draft next week. The first to book is Indiana Fever, who will make Clark a real box office magnet and crowd pleaser.
– This was a special season. We lost a couple of important players after last season, but we gave it our all and didn’t give up. The emotions will definitely come a little later, because this was the last time wearing an Iowa jersey, Clark said at the press conference.
Staley also raved about Clark’s contributions to women’s basketball.
– I want to personally thank Caitlin. She has carried a heavy burden to elevate our sport, and she will elevate the popularity of the WNBA as well. You are one of the greatest of our species, Staley stated.
There were 18,300 people on site, and even more at the TV receivers. Even in the semifinals, Clark’s performances were followed by a new college basketball record, when the semifinal between Iowa and Connecticut was watched by an average of 14.2 million viewers on ESPN. At its peak, the number of viewers was up to 17 million, which is higher than any NBA Finals or baseball’s World Series Finals last season.
The semifinal was also the second most watched match in the history of the ESPN channel, excluding American football. The finale was shown on the much larger ABC channel, and the number of viewers was expected to reach even more than 20 million viewers.