On Sunday April 7th the Iowa Hawkeyes and South Carolina Gamecocks played each other for the Women’s College Basketball Championship. The two teams were both powerhouses, South Carolina had an undefeated record going into the game while the Hawkeyes stood at 34-5. The odds were against the Hawkeyes, but they were not going to let that stop them.
The Hawkeyes were looking strong all throughout the first quarter, they maintained a lead for a majority of it and ended the quarter up by 7. The Hawkeyes lost the lead shortly before halftime down to the Gamecocks 49-46. After halftime the Gamecocks locked in and shut down almost all of the Hawkeyes ability to score. The Gamecocks would keep the lead for the rest of the game with the end score being 87-75 South Carolina. The loss was heartbreaking for the Iowa Hawkeyes and even for people watching the game. The Iowa Hawkeyes have yet to win a women’s basketball championship. A lot of people rooted for the Hawkeyes due to the fact that they were underdogs and one of their star players Guard Caitlin Clark.
Clark helped bring in media coverage to NCAA women’s basketball due to her talent on the court being compared to NBA Superstar Stephen Curry. Clarks stats for the big game were 30 points, 8 rebounds and 5 assists. Clarks shooting abilities from the three-point line is something you hardly see in women’s basketball. Clark stated in an interview “People are more excited about the women’s side than the men’s side” which was proven to be true as the championship game accumulated more views than all MLB games in the past year. Lots of sport reporters claim that NCAA women’s basketball is more competitive than men’s, even NBA Hall of Famer Paul Pierce said he only knew the top girl players which are “Clark, Reese and Paige Bueckers”. This year was a sky rocketing year in the number of views the NCAA Women’s Basketball gained. It leads viewers to be excited for next year’s NCAA tournament as, number 1 draft pick for WNBA draft, Paige Bueckers is staying one more year for the 2024-2025 season at UCONN. It could only get more exciting from here as fans watch Bueckers play one last time and watch Clark play for WNBA’s Indiana Fever.
After the game we asked fans how they felt about Iowa’s loss to South Carolina, Senior Jacob Gonzalez was asked about his thoughts on the big game and he said, “It sucked that Iowa didn’t win, I wanted them to get their first championship and for Caitlin (Clark) to get her first ring”. The championship game brought in and averaged more viewers than men’s basketball bringing in 24 million viewers in total. Womens college basketball is finally getting their recognition and this year was one for the books for NCAA Womens Basketball.