Caitlin Clark, Iowa slayed the giant. Now they need to finish the job against LSU for title.

DALLAS — All right, Caitlin Clark, now it’s time to finish the job.

Friday night, the most spectacular basketball player in America led Iowa to a spectacular feat, snapping South Carolina’s 42-game winning streak with a 77-73 win in the women's Final Four semifinal.

Clark, the consensus national player of the year, scored 41, dished eight assists and grabbed eight rebounds. The win puts Clark and the Hawkeyes in position to bring home Iowa’s first national championship. The Hawkeyes meet LSU on Sunday afternoon in one of the most highly anticipated — and unlikely — title games in the history of women’s basketball.

Want evidence of just how in-demand this game, and this player, are? In the Dallas area, tickets to Sunday’s national championship are priced comparably to tickets for Sunday’s sold-out Taylor Swift show at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

For Clark & Co., this is likely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. That means they have to capitalize on the moment.

There’s no question Friday was one of the greatest individual performances in one of the greatest upsets of all time in the NCAA women's tournament. Similar to 2017. Remember that one? That March, Morgan William of Mississippi State hit a 15-foot pull-up at the buzzer that stunned UConn, winners of 111 games in a row and four consecutive titles.

And then … Mississippi State and William puttered out in the title game against A’ja Wilson and South Carolina, losing 67-55. William scored just eight points in 23 minutes of play, visibly exhausted, emotionally and physically, from slaying the giant 48 hours prior. It was a heartbreaking letdown. That Mississippi State couldn’t finish it dulled the win for South Carolina, too, because the Gamecocks didn’t have to go through UConn on their way to the program's first title.

It’s noteworthy, to say the least, this year that Iowa beat heavily favored, undefeated and overall No. 1 seed South Carolina. The Hawkeyes slayed the giant — but now they've got to take the castle, and the championship trophy.

Iowa coach Lisa Bluder is trying to find the balance of enjoying a huge victory while prepping for what would be an even bigger one. She said no matter the outcome in Sunday’s title bout, “it will still be a big deal to me that we beat South Carolina and that we played” for the championship.

Saturday, after the upset had time to marinate, Clark acknowledged she picked Iowa out of high school “to be in this moment right now.” She’s talked for years about wanting to be the first, about choosing the Hawkeyes so she could lead them to new heights.

Before anyone else, she believed it was possible. That feeling has become contagious, traveling from the Hawkeyes locker room around the American Airlines Center and now, across the country. Bluder caught it too, just earlier than most. Midway through this season she asked her group, “Why not us?”

“I always talk about people have these dreams, and they get so close to their dreams and they quit. They don't know how close they are, right? You don't know how close you are to finishing — well, you probably know how close you are to finishing the marathon when you hit the wall — but there's so many times that you're about to get that sale, or you're about to get something, and you just give up,” Bluder said.

“We talk a lot about that, like we're not giving up. Just keep going. Keep going. Why not us? Why not us be the people that are at the top of the ladder at the end?”

For as much success as Clark has had this season — numerous player of the year honors, back-to-back 40-point games on the biggest stage — she was quick to tell reporters Saturday, “Coach Bluder doesn’t think I’ve arrived. I don’t think I’ve arrived.”

Then she went so far as to say that even if she does lead her team to the championship, she still will not have fully arrived, at least not by her standards. She’s only a junior, with years left to impact women’s basketball.

“We have to be able to enjoy this for a moment but also reset our minds,” Clark said minutes after beating South Carolina. “We didn't come this far just to play in the national championship game. We're here to win it. We're here to hoist the trophy. We're here to cut down another championship net.”

Maybe she hasn’t arrived. But if she’s going to, she has to finish the job she started Friday night.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Caitlin Clark, Iowa must finish the job and take out LSU for title