DALLAS — Caitlin Clark tossed the basketball high into the air as the clock ticked down, gave a huge shoutout to her adoring fans, then took off on a gleeful gallop around the court.
In the biggest game of her life, the dazzling point guard from Iowa had done it all: poured in 41 points to set a record for the highest-scoring individual performance in an NCAA tournament semifinal, ended the perfect season of South Carolina and, most importantly, put her Hawkeyes into the championship game.
Clark overwhelmed last season's national champions with another sensational show from start to finish, helping Iowa stop the Gamecocks' 42-game winning streak, 77-73 on Friday night in the Final Four.
"We had nothing to lose. I have all the confidence in the world in this group, and they believe right back in me, and that's all you need," Clark said. "All we do is believe in one another, and we love each other to death, and that's what a true team is. If you want an example of a team, that's what this is."
The spectacular 6-foot junior became the first player to post back-to-back 40-point performances in the NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament. She now has the Big Ten's Hawkeyes (31-6) in a spot they've never been in before — one victory away from a national championship.
"I love me some Caitlin Clark," Iowa coach Lisa Bluder said. "We've been talking about being mission focused a lot this year, and we had a game plan and these guys executed so well. That is South Carolina we just beat, folks. Amazing."
After taking down the Gamecocks (36-1), who swept the Southeastern Conference regular-season and tournament titles this season on their way to becoming the NCAA tourney's overall No. 1 seed, Iowa will have to be another SEC team to win it all. The Hawkeyes, a No. 2 seed, will face LSU (33-2), a No. 3 seed, in the title game at 3:30 p.m. Eastern on Sunday.
The Tigers beat Virginia Tech, a No. 1 seed, in Friday's first semifinal in Dallas. It's LSU's first appearance in the title game as Kim Mulkey became the second coach to take two different teams to the championship game; she won three national titles during 21 seasons leading the Baylor Bears before taking over in Baton Rouge two years ago.
LSU's losses this season were to South Carolina in the regular season and Tennessee in the SEC tourney semifinals, and the Tigers' comeback against the Hokies in the first semifinal gave the crowd a proper warmup for an even bigger show.
Thanks to the riveting play of Clark, announced as the AP player of the year on Thursday, and the historic season by South Carolina, this was one of the most discussed and highly anticipated matchups in women's Final Four history. The game lived up to the hype surrounding it — the top star versus the top team — much to the delight of the sellout crowd of more than 19,000.
"Tonight showed how fun women's basketball is," said Clark, who scored 41 points for the second game in a row. "I'm sure some people wished this was a series of seven games."
Coach Dawn Staley and South Carolina had kept on winning since taking last year's title. The Gamecocks entered Friday not having lost since dropping the 2022 SEC tournament final to Kentucky.
"I don't think we felt pressure to win the game, we just didn't perform," Staley said. "And that hasn't been us all season long. I don't think our players felt pressure, any other pressures besides wanting to win another basketball game."
Until this year, the only time the Hawkeyes had reached the Final Four was in 1993, and C. Vivian Stringer was the coach of that team, which lost in overtime to Ohio State in its semifinal.
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.
Clark has led the nation in scoring in two of her three college seasons, and last weekend she had a game for the ages, recording the first 40-point triple-double in NCAA history to lead the Hawkeyes to the Final Four. Now she has them on the doorstep of more history.
Trailing 59-55 entering the fourth quarter, South Carolina scored the first five points of the period to take the lead. Clark answered right back with two deep 3-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 3-pointer before Clark got a steal for a layup with 3:32 left. Neither team scored again until Gamecocks 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 South Carolina's Zia Cooke with 58 seconds left, the Hawkeyes ran the clock down, with McKenna Warnock grabbing a huge offensive rebound off a Clark miss with 18 seconds remaining.
Clark hit two free throws after South Carolina fouled her with 13.5 seconds left. They were her 38th and 39th points, moving her past Nneka Ogwumike for the most in an NCAA semifinal. After a putback basket by Johnson with 9.9 seconds left got the Gamecocks within 75-73, Clark sealed the game with two more free throws.
Cooke led the Gamecocks with 24 points. Slowed by foul trouble, Boston — the AP player of the year in 2022 — had just eight points and 10 rebounds as the Hawkeyes packed the paint, brazenly daring South Carolina to shoot from outside.
The strategy seemed to bamboozle the Gamecocks, who finished 4-for-20 from 3-point range. They couldn't take advantage of their 49-25 rebounding edge that included 26 offensive boards.
The loss ended a tremendous season for the Gamecocks, who were trying to become the 10th D-I women's team to go through a season unbeaten.
"It was physical. You've got to give them a lot of credit," Clark said. "They're a tremendous team, they've had a tremendous year, obviously so well coached."