NPR

South Carolina Takes Its First Women's NCAA Basketball Title

The lady Gamecocks earned their first national title with a 67-55 win over Mississippi State. It's also a first for former player, Coach Dawn Staley, who had made several Final Fours in her prime.
The South Carolina Gamecocks beat the Stanford Cardinal during the semifinal round of the 2017 NCAA Women's Final Four. South Carolina will play Mississippi State Sunday night for the NCAA women's championship.

Last updated at 9:30 p.m. ET

By now, it's fair to say South Carolina is a better team than Mississippi State. The Gamecocks' 67-55 win in the title game Sunday was South Carolina's third — and most convincing — win over the Bulldogs this season.

The women's first basketball championship is all the more impressive since the team lost senior center Alaina Coates to an ankle injury before the tournament started.

A'ja Wilson, the tournament's deserving MOP (Most Outstanding Player), led the Gamecocks' fourth quarter surge that put the game away. Six-foot-five-inch Wilson, who scored eight of her game-high 23 points that final quarter, came out in force with rebounds and blocked shots.

But Wilson certainly wasn't the only South Carolina player of note. Shooting guards Allisha Gray and

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