Caitlin Clark, Iowa and the stuff of legends in upset of undefeated South Carolina

DALLAS — On Feb. 26, the Iowa Hawkeyes were 1.5 seconds away from their second consecutive loss to end the regular season. Now, they are 40 minutes from winning the 2023 women's NCAA basketball championship.

But instead of losing that game to the Indiana Hoosiers, Caitlin Clark launched a game-winning 3-pointer. That second and a half kick-started a nine-game winning streak that has landed the Hawkeyes in their first national championship game.

Since then, Clark has 235 points, 82 assists and 52 rebounds in the postseason, winning the Big Ten tournament, the Seattle 4 Regional title and getting the upset of this NCAA tournament Friday night as her Hawkeyes ended No. 1 overall seed South Carolina's 42-game winning streak with a 77-73 victory at American Airlines Center.

In front of a sellout crowd that included tennis legend Billie Jean King, Clark delivered the goods once again. Everyone has had an idea of how to stop Clark, but no one has been able to do it. The expectations for Clark rose every game, and she has risen to the occasion.

«I think I'm just really, really thankful to be in this position more than anything,» Clark said. «Like Coach [Lisa] Bluder said, probably everybody in America picked South Carolina, deservedly so. They've been ranked No. 1 all year. They've won 42 straight basketball games. Why wouldn't you pick them?

»But at the same time, the people in our locker room believed in us. That's all you need is a belief in one another, a confidence in one another. We just do it for the person to our left and our right."

And when you have someone like Clark beside you, it's easy to believe. In a tournament that in the past 30 years has seen epic individual performances from the likes of Sheryl Swoopes,