Sunday’s NCAA women’s basketball national championship broke historic ground with a record-setting 18.7 million viewers, ESPN said today.

“With a record-setting audience of 18.7 million viewers, Sunday’s Iowa-South Carolina title game was a fitting finale to the most-viewed 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 and it’s incumbent on all of us to keep the incredible momentum going.”

Helping to hype up Sunday’s women’s finals between Iowa and South Carolina was Iowa star Caitlin Clark, who broke all-time scoring records this season and who is headed to the WNBA draft.

South Carolina beat Iowa 87-75 at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland.

It was the most-watched basketball game since 2019, pro or college, the ESPN said. The game was shown on ESPN and ABC. It had a peak viewership of 24 million.

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Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont is putting up a case of beer, chocolates and a pizza, and Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb is venturing root beer, sugar cream pie and a pork tenderloin in a bet on their state’s teams in tonight’s game.

The UConn Huskies are trying for back-to-back championships — giving them six overall — while Purdue is trying for its first.

Lamont’s bet involves a case of beer from Athletic Brewing Co., a box of chocolates from Munson’s Chocolates and a New Haven-style pizza from Sally’s in New Haven’s Wooster Square, he said.

Holcomb is wagering Triple XXX root beer, sugar cream pie from Wick’s and a pork tenderloin from Harry’s Chocolate Shop.

Both governors expressed confidence that his state's team would win.

"It’s all come down to this, Boiler Up and Hammer Down,” Holcomb said in a statement. “I’m confident the NCAA trophy is coming to the Hoosier state, where we grow basketball. It’s going to be a great match-up of the best of the best.”

The University of Connecticut is in Storrs, and Purdue University is in West Lafayette, Indiana. 

Yesterday, South Carolina and Iowa battled it out in the women's NCAA championship game at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Cleveland, in a game in which Iowa took an early lead.

In the end, the South Carolina Gamecocks came out victorious, 87-75, capping off an undefeated season with the ultimate trophy and a 38-0 record.

Center Kamilla Cardoso was named the tournament's most outstanding player, and coach Dawn Staley cried so hard after the win she could hardly get the words out to express her excitement and pride in her team.

It also marked the end of a decorated college hoops career for NCAA all-time scorer Caitlin Clark, who is headed to the WNBA draft as the likely first overall pick.

UConn has blown through the NCAA Tournament again to reach college basketball’s final night, this time with a chance to claim the first repeat championship in 17 years.

The final test is facing a Purdue team that spent an entire season proving it had recovered from one of the rarest of NCAA Tournament upsets.

“It speaks to the credit of what the coaching staff does — they’ve constructed a beautiful team, as we see,” UConn forward Alex Karaban said.

“They made sure the returners, we weren’t complacent, that we wanted to leave a legacy,” Karaban added. “And for the new guys, they’re hungrier than ever. ... To be one win away against a really good Purdue team, it’s going to be a battle and we know that. And it’s going to take everything to make sure that we make history.”

The UConn Huskies and the Purdue Boilermakers defeated No. 4 seed Alabama and No. 11 seed N.C. State, respectively, in the Final Four on Saturday.

UConn, the defending national champion, will look to become the first program since Florida in 2007 to win back-to-back titles. The Huskies have reached the championship game five previous times, winning every matchup.

Purdue has not won an NCAA Tournament.

UConn, the betting favorites entering the tournament, outlasted Alabama on Saturday thanks to a dominant performance down the stretch.

The game was tied at 56 points with 12:04 left before Dan Hurley’s squad took over. All five UConn starters scored in double figures, led by Stephon Castle’s 21 points.

Purdue cruised past N.C. State 63-50 after another big game from All-American center Zach Edey. The 7-foot-4 Canadian finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds as the Boilermakers dominated on the inside. Purdue outrebounded the Wolfpack 41-28 and added 10 3-pointers.

The Boilermakers pulled away late in the second half, going on a 14-1 run with a little over four minutes remaining.

The UConn Huskies will try to defend their title tonight against the Purdue Boilermakers.

The game starts at 9:20 p.m. ET and will be played at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.

It airs on TBS, TNT and TruTV. The game will also be streaming on Max and the NCAA's March Madness Live.