Ruthless Caitlin Clark’s 41-point game seals Iowa’s upset of South Carolina

Caitlin Clark had another sensational game with 41 points to help Iowa spoil South Carolina’s perfect season with a 77-73 victory on Friday night in the Final Four.

The spectacular junior guard, who has back-to-back 40-point games, now has the Hawkeyes in a spot they’ve never been in before – one victory away from a national championship.

“This is incredible, I don’t even know what to say,” she said after the game. “I just love these girls so much.”

They’ll have to beat another SEC team to do that as Iowa will face LSU in the title game on Sunday afternoon.

Thanks to the spectacular play of Clark and the historic year by South Carolina, this was one of the most talked about and highly anticipated matchups in women’s Final Four history.

The game lived up to the hype surrounding it, much to the delight of the sellout crowd of over 19,000 fans. Coach Dawn Staley and South Carolina had won 42 in a row, including last year’s championship game.

Clark wowed the crowd that included Harper Stribe, a young fan of the team who has been battling cancer. She was featured in a surprise video that informed the Hawkeyes’ star that she was the AP Player of the Year.

Trailing 59-55 entering the fourth quarter, South Carolina scored the first five points to take the lead. Clark answered right back with two deep three-pointers and an assist to Monika Czinano to give the Hawkeyes a 67-62 lead.

South Carolina got within 69-68 on Raven Johnson’s three-pointer before Clark got a steal for a layup with 3:32 left. Neither team scored again until star Aliyah Boston was fouled with 1:37 left. She made the second of two free throws.

Clark then scored another layup on the other end out of a timeout to make it a four-point game. After a layup by Zia