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The South Carolina Gamecocks are the 2024 NCAA Women's Basketball national champions.
The Gamecocks defeated the Iowa Hawkeyes, 87-75, to complete their perfect season, spoiling two-time reigning Associated Press Player of the Year and NCAA all-time leading scorer Caitlin Clark's final collegiate game before entering the 2024 WNBA Draft.
Freshman guard Tessa Johnson led South Carolina with a career-high 19 points off the bench. Senior Kamilla Cardoso finished with a double-double, recording 15 points and 10 rebounds and was named the Most Outstanding Player for the tournament in what served as her final collegiate game.
Clark recorded 30 points, including 18 in the first period, eight rebounds and five assists during her final collegiate game before entering the 2024 WNBA Draft.
South Carolina has now won three NCAA March Madness national titles in program history, all of which have come during the 16-year tenure of head coach Dawn Staley, which is tied with Baylor and Stanford for the third-most in NCAA history. The Gamecocks avenged last season's Final Four loss to Iowa, which also fell short in the March Madness Final to LSU in 2023.
Staley, 53, a six-time WNBA All-Star during her playing career, is now tied with Basketball Hall of Famer Tara Vanderveer for the fifth-most NCAA Women's Basketball National Championship wins in history, trailing only Hall of Famers Geno Auriemma, the late Pat Summitt and Kim Mulkey for the most all-time.