CLEVELAND — Raven Johnson never shied away from her ultimate goal.
She wanted a national championship, and she wanted it to come by beating Iowa.
“Like I said, it was a revenge tour and there’s no better way than to play them in the championship and beat them,” Johnson said.
Last year she became a social media phenomenon, but not in a positive way, when Iowa star Caitlin Clark waved her off when she was wide open at the 3-point arc. They didn’t respect Johnson’s scoring ability.
In Sunday’s national championship win, Johnson didn’t do much scoring, but her defense helped the Gamecocks beat Iowa 87-75 to become the first undefeated national champion since UConn in 2016.
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Johnson, who switched onto Clark in the first quarter after she had 13 points in two minutes, had just three points. But she held Clark to just three points in the second quarter.
Redemption felt sweet for Johnson and everybody involved at South Carolina, including coach Dawn Staley, who was boisterous throughout the game.
“I was emotional at the beginning of the game because I didn’t want what happened last year to happen this year. So I was handling things in…
