Women’s NCAA Tournament features plethora of March Madness

DALLAS (AP) — This year’s record-breakingwomen’s NCAA Tournament featured breakout stars, upsets and cappedoff with the flamboyant Kim Mulkey leading LSU to its firstbasketball championship.

Mulkey’s unforgettable outfits were just one of severalmemorable moments. There was Caitlin Clark’s 40-point triple-doublein the Elite Eight game, the drama of South Carolina’s quest tocomplete the latest undefeated season and two No. 1 seeds beingknock off before the Sweet 16.

It led to the highest attendance ever in the tournament’shistory to go along with stellar TV ratings in every round. Thetiming couldn’t be better for the sport. It all could lead towomen’s basketball getting a separate TV deal when the contractexpires next summer.

Here’s a look at some of the top moments from thetournament:

FIERY FASHIONISTA

Mulkey is never hard to miss on the sideline with her feistyapproach and reactions to referees and her players. The coach’sflamboyant attire takes her presence to a different level, and herFinal Four outfits certainly stood out.

For the national semifinal game, Mulkey arrived in a carnationpink top with a flower-like puffs along the entire sleeves, adesigner-made top similar to what her 2-year-old granddaughterwore. Even the LSU mascot was spotted in pink attire.

The coach wore a sparkly, golden, tiger-striped outfit duringthe championship game. Her team were the golden girls, winning thefirst basketball championship in school history.

DAZZLING CLARK

Clark set an NCAA Tournament record by scoring 191 points overIowa’s six games, surpassing Sheryl Swoopes’ 177 points for TexasTech in 1993 — and Glen Rice’s 184 for Michigan in the 1989 men’stournament.

Before 30 points in the championship game, the 6-foot Iowa-bornClark was the first player in the women’s tournament withback-to-back 40-point games. That included her 11th careertriple-double in the regional final against Louisville, beforeanother 41 points against previously undefeated South Carolina inthe national semifinal game.

HISTORY DENIED

South Carolina was trying to become the 10th women’s team to runthrough a season undefeated and the first school to win consecutivetitles since UConn won four straight from 2013-16. The Gamecockswere denied that chance, losing to Iowa in the Final Four behind astellar effort from Clark.

END OF AN ERA

UConn’s run of 14 consecutive Final Four appearance came to anend in the Elite Eight when Ohio State forced the Huskies into 18first-half turnovers with full-court pressure defense. The Huskieshadn’t missed playing in the national semifinals since 2007.

NEW FORMAT

The NCAA changed its regional format this year going to twosites instead of the traditional four. It got strong reviews fromplayers and coaches and fans alike. There ended up being a recordattendance for that round with more fans showing up in Seattle —which had no team within 1,300 miles of the venue — thanGreenville, South Carolina.

’CANES WERE COOKING

Miami did more than just be part of history by knocking out No.1 seed Indiana before the Sweet 16. The Hurricanes under coachKatie Meier ousted Villanova and ended national scoring leaderMaddy Siegrist’s career to reach the Elite Eight for the firsttime. The champs from LSU ended Miami’s run with a muddy 54-42 winin the regional finals.

THIRST FOR FIRSTS

Virginia Tech was a first-time participant in the Final Four,which had a pair of first-time finalists after LSU beat thetop-seeded Hokies and Clark’s Hawkeyes ousted undefeated defendingnational champion South Carolina. It was already guaranteed beforethe final that the champion would be something other than a No. 1seed for the first time since 2011.

UPSETTING PERFORMANCES

Stanford and Indiana both fell in the second round becoming thesecond pair of No. 1 seeds to not make the Sweet 16 since thetournament expanded to 64 teams in 1994. It also happened in 1998.The Cardinal were stymied on their home court by Mississippi’sdefense. They never led the second-round game and had their streakof 14 consecutive Sweet 16 appearances ended. The Hoosiers lost atAssembly Hall the next night, when Miami’s Destiny Harden made thegame-winning shot with 3.5 seconds left.

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AP Sports Writer Stephen Hawkins and AP Basketball Writer DougFeinberg contributed to this story.