Fresh off her second national championship in three years, South Carolina coach Dawn Staley made sure to credit Iowa star Caitlin Clark for helping popularize women’s basketball after a season that saw Clark raise the ceiling, and then shatter it.

“I want to personally thank Caitlin Clark for lifting up our sport,” Staley said. “She carried a heavy load for our sport. It just is not going to stop here on a collegiate tour but when she is the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft, she’s going to lift that league up as well.

“So Caitlin Clark, if you’re out there, you are one of the GOATs of our game. We appreciate you.”

Clark responded to the praise in a postgame news conference, saying, “Any time someone like coach Staley is able to recognize you and what you did for the game, it’s pretty special, and honestly, she’s somebody I respect so much, I respect what she’s done for South Carolina, I respect what she did as a player for our game, so any time you can get the praises of her it’s pretty special so it means a lot.”

Tacking on to her long list of accolades — which notably includes owning the highest NCAA scoring mark in men’s and women’s basketball — Clark broke the all-time NCAA Tournament scoring record in the first quarter of the national championship Sunday. In 17 career NCAA Tournament games, Clark netted 492 points. Against the Gamecocks, she scored 30 points, adding eight rebounds and five assists.

Iowa, however, fell to South Carolina 87-75, marking its second straight loss in the national title game.

The wins for women’s basketball are likely to continue. The viewership mark for the national championship is highly anticipated after the Iowa-UConn Final Four matchup broke the record for the most-watched women’s college basketball game in history with 14.2 million people tuning in, peaking at 17 million. That record broke the previous record set four days earlier, when Iowa defeated LSU in the Elite Eight, which drew 12.3 million viewers and peaked at 16 million.

Ticket sales also skyrocketed, with every ticket to Iowa’s NCAA Tournament first and second rounds at Carver-Hawkeye Arena selling out in just 30 minutes. Women’s Final Four tickets boasted, with service fees, a get-in price of around $965.

And as far as the “greatest of all time” conversation goes, Clark has certainly put her name in the mix with other icons such as Cheryl Miller, Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi, Chamique Holdsclaw, Maya Moore and Sue Bird. In a poll of 35 anonymous head coaches conducted by The Athletic, 10.3 percent voted Clark as the best women’s college basketball player of all time.

Clark graduates from Iowa with more than 3,900 points to her name. She now turns to the WNBA, where she’s expected to hear her name called first at the draft in Brooklyn, N.Y., on April 15.