Caitlin Clark had one other sensational sport with 41 factors to assist Iowa spoil South Carolina’s excellent season with a 77-73 victory on Friday evening within the Closing 4.
The spectacular junior guard, who has back-to-back 40-point video games, now has the Hawkeyes in a spot they’ve by no means been in earlier than – one victory away from a nationwide championship.
“That is unbelievable, I don’t even know what to say,” she stated after the sport. “I simply love these ladies a lot.”
They’ll should beat one other SEC staff to try this as Iowa will face LSU within the title sport on Sunday afternoon.
Because of the spectacular play of Clark and the historic 12 months by South Carolina, this was one of the crucial talked about and extremely anticipated matchups in ladies’s Closing 4 historical past.
The sport lived as much as the hype surrounding it, a lot to the delight of the sellout crowd of over 19,000 followers. Coach Daybreak Staley and South Carolina had gained 42 in a row, together with final 12 months’s championship sport.
Clark wowed the group that included Harper Stribe, a younger fan of the staff who has been battling most cancers. She was featured in a shock video that knowledgeable the Hawkeyes’ star that she was the AP Participant of the Yr.
Trailing 59-55 coming into the fourth quarter, South Carolina scored the primary 5 factors to take the lead. Clark answered proper again with two deep three-pointers and an help to Monika Czinano to provide the Hawkeyes a 67-62 lead.
South Carolina acquired inside 69-68 on Raven Johnson’s three-pointer earlier than Clark acquired a steal for a layup with 3:32 left. Neither staff scored once more till star Aliyah Boston was fouled with 1:37 left. She made the second of two free throws.
Clark then scored one other layup on the opposite finish out of a timeout to make it a four-point sport. After a layup by Zia Cooke made it a two-point sport with 58 seconds left, the Hawkeyes ran the clock down with McKenna Warnock grabbing an enormous offensive rebound off a Clark miss with 18 seconds remaining.
Clark hit two free throws after South Carolina fouled her with 13.5 seconds left. They have been her thirty eighth and thirty ninth factors, transferring her previous Nneka Ogwumike for essentially the most factors scored in a Closing 4 semifinal sport.
After a putback by Johnson with 9.9 seconds left acquired the Gamecocks inside 75-73, Clark sealed the sport with two extra free throws. As the ultimate seconds went off the clock Clark threw the ball excessive within the air and galloped across the courtroom.
“I’d prefer to have had just a few extra threes, that might have been good,” joked Clark after the sport.
The loss ended a spectacular season for the defending champion Gamecocks, who have been making an attempt to turn into the tenth staff to undergo a season unbeaten.
Cooke led the Gamecocks with 24 factors. Slowed by foul bother, Boston had simply eight factors and 10 rebounds because the Hawkeyes packed the paint, daring South Carolina to shoot from the skin.
The Gamecocks completed 4-for-20 from behind the three-point line and couldn’t make the most of their 49-25 benefit on the boards that included 26 offensive rebounds.
LSU beat Virginia Tech within the different semi-final earlier on Friday evening. It’s the Tigers’ first look within the title sport as Kim Mulkey grew to become the second coach to take two totally different groups to the championship sport. Alexis Morris scored 27 factors and had two of her misses within the fourth quarter became putback baskets by Angel Reese in an enormous run as LSU rallied to beat top-seeded Virginia Tech 79-72.
“I’m by no means happy. I’m super-excited that we gained, however I’m hungry,” stated Morris, who jumped on a courtside desk and fired up LSU followers after the sport. “Like, I’m grasping. I need to win all of it so I can full the story.”
Reese completed with 24 factors and 12 rebounds for LSU.
“It’s like a dream. It nonetheless hasn’t hit me that I’m on the Closing 4,” stated Reese, the switch from Maryland who carries the nickname Bayou Barbie. “I’m simply not even believing this proper now. It’s loopy how a lot my life has modified in a single 12 months.”