Iowa vs South Carolina women's basketball history: H2H, records and more

As South Carolina faces the Iowa Hawkeyes in Monday's NCAA title game, the best team in college basketball will face the best player in college basketball in a quest for revenge.

A season ago, South Carolina was perfect into the Final Four, but Iowa ended its season in a semifinal upset. However, the Hawkeyes themselves fell in the title game to LSU. A season later, the two teams meet for a championship.

Interestingly, South Carolina and Iowa only met once before last year's Final Four battle. The all-time series between the teams is tied at 1-1, so Sunday's game will decide the lead in the rivalry.

Here's a historical overview of arguably the biggest game in the history of either team, South Carolina vs. Iowa.

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Iowa vs South Carolina women's basketball history

A season ago, Caitlin Clark and the Hawkeyes slipped past the Gamecocks in the Final Four.

Iowa began playing women's basketball in 1974. Coach C. Vivian Stringer gave the program legitimacy after taking the coaching job in 1983. Stringer led Iowa to the 1993 Final Four after a pair of Elite Eight seasons. Current Hawkeye coach Lisa Bluder was hired in 2000.

The Hawkeyes slowly built under Bluder, but it took until 2015 for the team to reach the NCAA Sweet 16. Bluder and Co. made the Elite Eight in 2019, but it took the arrival of Caitlin Clark to transfer Iowa into a national power. The last two seasons have marked the team's second and third Final Four appearances. Clark has become the leading scorer in women's basketball, and Iowa has thrived.

A season ago, Iowa spoiled Carolina's perfect season before falling to LSU in the national title game. After outlasting UConn on Friday, the Hawkeyes earned a second title appearance in two seasons.

The USC Gamecocks opened women's basketball play in 1974. The school struggled until the arrival of Dawn Staley as coach in 2008. Up to that point, Carolina's NCAA Tournament history included one Elite Eight and three Sweet 16 appearances. Staley led Carolina to its first Final Four in 2015.

Two years later, she won the school's first NCAA title. Since then, Carolina has returned to the last four Final Fours. In 2022, the team won the school's second title. In 2023, a perfect season was ruined with a national semifinal loss to Iowa. Accordingly, that Iowa game is the only USC loss since an SEC Tournament loss to Kentucky 25 months ago.

Carolina is again perfect and is chasing the 10th perfect season concluded with an NCAA title in women's basketball history. Carolina would become only the fifth school to complete such a season, with UConn, Baylor, Tennessee and Texas being the others.

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Iowa vs South Carolina women's basketball H2H

The two teams have played only twice. In the 2023 Final Four, Iowa outlasted South Carolina 77-73. In 1989, the two teams played a neutral-site regular season game. In the Super Shootout at Hilton Head, the No. 20 Gamecocks bested No. 4 Iowa 82-76.

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Notable record in the Iowa vs South Carolina series

Interestingly, in both previous games, both teams were ranked in the AP top-25. But in both cases, the lower ranked team upset the higher-ranked team. Of course, the teams also haven't played on either team's home court, with bost games being played at neutral sites.

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When was the last time South Carolina beat Iowa?

On Dec. 29, 1989, the Gamecocks won 82-76 over Iowa. Not only was that a decade before Lisa Bludner came to Iowa, current USC coach Dawn Staley was a sophomore at Virginia.

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When was the last time Iowa beat South Carolina?

Of course, the Hawkeyes last bested the Gamecocks in the 2023 Final Four, with a 77-73 victory. In that game in Dallas, Caitlin Clark had 41 points and eight assists to deliver the victory. Zia Cooke had 24 points for Carolina, but All-American Aliyah Boston was held to eight points on 2-of-9 shooting.

Can Clark pull off a second crushing upset of South Carolina? If she fails, will her legacy as a great player be truly complete? Sunday promises plenty of answers to fascinating questions.