DALLAS — As the victories mounted, 42 in a row across two seasons, Coach Dawn Staley acknowledged that while South Carolina did not feel pressure, exactly, it did sense the weight of expectation as it sought a second consecutive women’s N.C.A.A. basketball championship.
Going undefeated through the first 36 games of this season, Staley said, was “extremely hard” in an era of growing parity.
“You have to be levels above everybody else because you get everybody’s best effort every time you step on the floor,” Staley said. “And you can’t have any slippage.”
South Carolina never panicked in stressful moments during this N.C.A.A. tournament. But near the end of Friday’s national semifinal against Iowa, the resilient Gamecocks drew within 1 point with just over four minutes left, then flinched with three consecutive turnovers. And when the Hawkeyes star Caitlin Clark missed a 3-point attempt with 21 seconds remaining, it was Iowa, not South Carolina with its tall rebounders, that secured the ball with a 2-point lead.
When the buzzer sounded on the Hawkeyes’ stunning 77-73 victory, forward Aliyah Boston, the cornerstone of South Carolina’s success and the national player of the year during the 2021-22 season said, “It was kind of just an end of an era.”
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