South Carolina wins 1st national title, beats Miss St 67-55
DALLAS — Dawn Staley is going to savour her first NCAA championship. It took her a long time to finally be able to raise the trophy over her head.
A’ja Wilson scored 23 points to help coach Staley and South Carolina win their first national championship with a 67-55 victory over Mississippi State on Sunday night.
Staley made the Final Four three times as a player at Virginia but never won. She also led the Gamecocks to the national semifinals two years ago before losing to Notre Dame.
“It means that I can check off one of the things that had been a void in my career,” said Staley wearing the championship net around her neck in the postgame press conference. “Something I wanted to do. It was one of two opportunities that I saw women play when I was younger — national championship games and Olympics. Those were things that I held dear and near to me growing up. Those were the things I saw and were shooting for.”