Record 18.7m watched Iowa-south Carolina final

The NCAA women's championship clash between Iowa and South Carolina was watched by 18.7 million viewers on Sunday - a record for a women's college basketball game, ESPN said.

It peaked at 24 million viewers on ABC and ESPN, the sports broadcaster said, and was the most-watched basketball game across men's, women's, college or professional sport since 2019. It was the most-watched sporting event outside of the Olympics or football in five years.

The figure beats the 12.3 million who tuned in for Caitlin Clark and her Iowa Hawkeyes' revenge game against LSU earlier in the tournament and their Final Four match against rivals University of Connecticut last week, which drew 14.2 million.

The Hawkeyes' Elite Eight win over LSU was a rematch of last year's title game that drew a then-record 9.9 million viewers. The rematch netted 12.3 million viewers.

Then came the Final Four meeting with blueblood Uconn on Friday night. That game upped the record to 14.2 million.

Clark has electrified fans in her final season with Iowa, as she broke Pete Maravich's all-time scoring record in college basketball, and is widely expected to go first overall in the WNBA Draft next week.

She was denied the final jewel in her crown against coach Dawn Staley's formidable South Carolina team, as the the Gamecocks completed an undefeated season with an 87-75 victory in the title game.

"Sunday's Iowa-south Carolina title game was a fitting finale to the mostviewed ever NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament," ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement.

"These exceptional athletes, coaches and teams captured our attention in unprecedented ways."