South Carolina will play Iowa in the championship game on Sunday

Tonight was the night that four teams would inch a bit closer to accomplish their goals of winning a National Championship. You had the story book team in NC State trying to upset an undefeated team in South Carolina and with the night cap, you had UCONN trying to drop Caitlin Clark and Iowa to climb back to the mountain of being in the championship round. The basketball gods gave us one heck of a tournament with women's basketball and tonight we would see what teams would be playing Sunday in the Championship game.

South Carolina defeats NC State to play in the Championship game on Sunday 78-59

South Carolina got the party started against NC State. The first half, it was a little shaky with SC being a bit uneasy and turning the ball over. They had 10 turnovers in the two quarters, but their star in Kamilla Cardoso took over the game. She was rolling and had 16 points, before she left the floor with an apparent ankle injury with two minutes left in the half. SC went into the locker room with a one-point lead.

The Gamecocks game out in the second half swinging for that knockout punch. They went on a 14-5 sprint to go up 12 midway in the third and kept their foot on the gas the remainder of the game. Cardoso finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds.

UCONN had costly turnovers, which lost them the game against Iowa 71-69

In the highly anticipated nightcap between UConn and Iowa, which was a treat for fans. The Huskies jumped out to an eight-point lead early on and held the mega star in Caitlin Clark to 2 points in the first quarter. Coach Geno decided to blitz Clark and force other players to hit open shots. Clark finished the half with only six points and went 0-6 from behind the arc. Despite forcing 12 turnovers, Coach Geno was not happy that his team was not producing on the offensive end of the floor. Coming into the second half, he wanted his team to score buckets, because he knew it was only a matter of time that Iowa would get rolling. Iowa went on 13-6 run, which put a lot of pressure on the Huskies. UCONN fought hard and tied the game up at 57 to end the third quarter.

Iowa went on a 12-4 run mid-way in the fourth and it looked like the Hawkeyes was going to run away with the game. However, they scratched and clawed to make it a game. With 30 seconds left in regulation, down by one, UCONN needed a stop. They did that, but a costly offensive foul stopped a go ahead score. Iowa hangs on for the victory