South Carolina Basketball: Superhuman Caitlin Clark ends Gamecocks’ bid for history

In what was billed as one of the most anticipated women’s college basketball games ever, the South Carolina Gamecocks took on the Iowa Hawkeyes with a national championship game berth on the line. The South Carolina basketball team came into the contest as the nation’s top defense (maybe the top defense ever), and Dawn Staley’s squad had won 42-straight games. Iowa, led by Naismith National Player of the Year Caitlin Clark, brought one of the nation’s top offenses into American Airlines Arena for what was sure to be a titanic matchup.

The raucous crowd, heavily represented by both fanbases, was in for a classic.

Almost no one would have guessed that the game’s first five shots would be taken by players other than Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark. In all, the two teams combined to miss their first seven shots before Clark opened the scoring. Some ugly basketball dominated the first half of the opening period, but the Hawkeyes held an 8-6 lead as Clark and Zia Cooke handled most of the scoring.

The Gamecocks could not guard Clark in the first quarter, and the star took advantage. She scored or assisted on 8 of their 9 buckets. Carolina’s lack of outside shooting was a problem, as well, as Iowa refused to send defenders out to defend guards Kierra Fletcher and Raven Johnson. Aliyah Boston was called for two cheap fouls before she scored a point, and she had to go to the bench with the foul trouble. A late-quarter run gave the Hawkeyes a strong 22-13 lead.

Zia Cooke kept the Gamecocks in the game in the early stages of the second. Her offensive energy and Dawn Staley’s insertion of Olivia Thompson into the lineup (just for the threat of an outside shot and the space that the threat opened up) helped close the gap. Laeticia Amihere and Kamilla Cardoso played well in Boston’s absence, and the 9-point deficit shrunk to 3 in less than two minutes of game action.

Clark’s 14th, 15th, and 16th points came on a deep pull-up three with a hand in her face that put Iowa back up 6 at 29-23. After that, Amihere began guarding Clark, and her length gave the superstar some issues. When Iowa Head Coach Lisa Bluder called #22 to the bench for a breather, the Gamecocks closed the gap to 1. Monika Czinano’s ten points halted there without Clark facilitating, and Bluder was forced to re-insert a fatigued Clark into the game.

The Gamecocks took the lead after a tired-legged Clark missed a jumper short and then turned the ball over. Amihere and Cooke could not be stopped, and Cardoso was a force down low as South Carolina took a 32-31 lead. However, even tired, the greatness of Caitlin Clark shone through as she hit another triple to give her team the lead again. As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Clark finished the first half with 19 points and 6 assists for Iowa, and Zia Cooke had 18 for the Gamecocks. At the intermission, the score stood 38-37 in favor of the Hawkeyes.

South Carolina outrebounded Iowa 23-12 in the first half of play, but the 9-6 foul discrepancy and 8-5 turnover disadvantage were the difference early. Outside shooting was a problem (South Carolina shot 1-12 compared to Iowa’s 4-12), but that’s not been part of Carolina’s game all year. The second half was going to come down to on-ball defense: could the Gamecocks slow down Caitlin Clark, and could the Hawkeyes stop Zia Cooke and continue their strong work on Boston?

Out of the locker room, Kierra Fletcher returned to the floor, and Iowa continued daring her to shoot the basketball. A quick 0-3 start for her from the field was coupled with two Caitlin Clark blow-bys, and it became apparent this was not the game for her. Iowa’s lead grew to 9 points (48-39) before she was removed. A tight whistle saw Monika Czinano and Aliyah Boston both get their third fouls early, as well.

Boston finally got on the scoreboard three minutes into the period, but her presence on the court made a difference defensively as the Gamecocks began to cut into the lead. Kamilla Cardoso took advantage of the extra space down low created by Boston’s gravity and scored three quick buckets and grabbed four missed shots off the glass. Caitlin Clark’s ability to win her one-on-one matchup over Fletcher and Raven Johnson was keeping the Gamecocks from retaking the lead. As Carolina’s bigs rotated over to help after Clark got into the lane, shooters were left open.

Clark continued orchestrating the pick-and-roll perfectly as she scored, set up rollers for lay-ups, and hit pop players for open jumpers all night. Brea Beal played more aggressively on offense to provide the exhausted Zia Cooke with some relief, but she wasn’t making her chances. A 1-7 start for Beal and a 1-5 start for Boston put too much burden on Cooke and Cardoso. The duo was playing well, but fatigue was setting in for them both. A Czinano post-up brought the Iowa lead to 59-55 as the Gamecocks trailed for just the second time all season after three quarters.

With ten minutes remaining, the Gamecocks were in unfamiliar territory. Their response to playing from behind was strong, however. Raven Johnson hit a three off of an Aliyah Boston post-up and forced a Caitlin Clark travel on the other end. A big-to-big low post action resulted in a Boston basket that gave the Gamecocks the lead, but the assassin dressed in Iowa black snatched it right back. Clark hit two pull-up threes and assisted another basket as Iowa led again by five.

As Czinano went to the bench with her fourth foul, Clark became the only option for Lisa Bluder’s option, and she started forcing things a bit. South Carolina took advantage. Raven Johnson’s third deep ball of the half brought Carolina within one, but Caitlin Clark’s 14th made field goal brought the lead back to three. A back-and-forth next few minutes saw the Hawkeyes with the ball and a 71-69 lead with just 1:37 remaining.

Clark ended an almost 2-minute Iowa scoring drought to extend her team’s lead to 4, but Zia Cooke answered. Aliyah Boston then tied up McKenna Warnock, but the possession arrow was with Iowa. An offensive rebound off of a Clark miss resulted in a foul and two free throws for Clark. She sank them both and, in the process, also sank the Gamecocks’ chance at making history. Raven Johnson scored a gimme on the other end, but Clark iced the game with two more points at the charity stripe.

Lisa Bluder’s gameplan to allow South Carolina’s guards (not named Zia Cooke) to do whatever they wanted to do paid off as Brea Beal, Bree Hall, Kierra Fletcher, Raven Johnson, and Olivia Thompson combined to go 7-30 from the field. Aliyah Boston’s early foul trouble was a massive problem, as well, as Boston had the upper hand in her matchup but couldn’t take advantage of it while on the bench. She had 8 and 10 in limited action. Zia Cooke was very good with 24 points of her own. Kamilla Cardoso was excellent as she had a double-double and 3 blocks off the bench.

For the game, the turnover battle finished at 15-10, 3-point makes were 7-4, and assists were 14-9, all in favor of Iowa. As important as bigs are in the women’s game, guard play wins during NCAA Tournament time, and Iowa won the battle of the guards in convincing fashion, led by the nation’s most dynamic player.

The story was Caitlin Clark. The sensational junior scored a national semifinal record 41 points and added 8 assists and 6 rebounds. She scored or assisted on every basket in the fourth quarter and on 23 of Iowa’s 28 total makes. Simply put, she showed why she was voted the National Player of the Year. She also scored her 1000th point of the season and tied the broken-earlier-in-the-day Georgia Amoore record for most NCAA Tournament 3-pointers. She will surely break it on Sunday.

For the Gamecocks, it’s hard to fathom that a 1-loss season is somehow a disappointment, yet that is the situation in which South Carolina basketball finds itself. The country’s best team who played the best defense did not play well enough on the offensive end of the court when it mattered most. The Gamecocks had an INCREDIBLE season, but a bitter taste is left in the mouths of Gamecock Nation after missing out on becoming just the fifth-ever undefeated program and fourth-ever school to win back-to-back championships.

The 2019 recruiting class, known as “The Freshies,” should go down as one of the best, if not the best, class of players to ever come through women’s college basketball. More will be written and spoken of them in time, and they will deserve every kind word that comes their way.

The Gamecocks’ roster could look drastically different in just a few months. Aliyah Boston, Brea Beal, Zia Cooke, Kamilla Cardoso, and Laeticia Amihere all have decisions to make about their futures as they all are WNBA Draft-eligible but could return to school by utilizing their “Covid redshirt” season. Kierra Fletcher, Olivia Thompson, and Victaria Saxton will be gone. Dawn Staley’s team will barely be recognizable when they step on the court again in November, but South Carolina basketball fans can rest assured that Coach Staley will have things figured out.

Until then, the Hawkeyes should be congratulated for their tremendous performance and for not becoming just a footnote in a South Carolina run at history. Iowa and Caitlin Clark will take on LSU and Angel Reese for all the marbles on Sunday at 3:30 on ABC and the ESPN App.