South Carolina ends perfect season with NCAA title
The women's basketball team won a victory over superstar Caitlin Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes
![Caitlin Clark #22 of the Iowa Hawkeyes works to shoot around Sania Feagin #20 and Raven Johnson #25 of the South Carolina Gamecocks in the 2024 NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament National Championship at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/scLN2xeHzgH7Di5jRW2qXK-415-80.jpg)
What happened
The University of South Carolina women's basketball team finished their perfect season with a come-from-behind victory over superstar Caitlin Clark's Iowa Hawkeyes on Sunday to win this year's NCAA championship, 87-75.
Who said what
South Carolina Coach Dawn Staley said after the Gamecocks' victory that her team had "etched their names in the history books." Iowa Coach Lisa Bluder celebrated her team's two-year streak of second-place finishes as an "amazing feat." For Clark, Sunday's game was the capstone to a "special year."
The commentary
Fueled in part by Clark's superstardom, women's basketball is arguably a "hotter cultural event right now than the men's game," Slate said. "She has changed both her game and how women's sports overall are viewed," USA Today said.
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![https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516-320-80.jpg)
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What next?
Clark is off to New York City where she is widely expected to be next week's #1 WNBA draft pick.
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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.
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