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Kamilla Cardoso Named Most Outstanding Player Following NCAA Women’s Tournament Performance

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Kamilla Cardoso has ended an outstanding NCAA women’s tournament and her college career with a special honor.

After leading the South Carolina Gamecocks to an 87-85 win over the Iowa Hawkeyes to help her team become the10th team to ever finish a season undefeated while giving the team its third NCAA championship in program history, the 22-year-old Brazilian college basketball star was awarded the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player award.

Kamilla Cardoso, The All-America player helped create a wonderful ending to a unique collegiate career with 15 points and 17 rebounds.

The Montes Claros, Brazil native wasn’t given anything during her time at South Carolina, it was earned.

The Gamecocks weren’t the most respected undefeated team, but people knew about how good this team was, and what the 6-foot-7 Cardoso brought to the game.

“They’ve got so many really good shooters that you can’t sit down on (Kamilla) Cardoso and collapse on her, because they got a lot of people that can knock down threes around her,” NC State coach Wes Moore said ahead of the Final Four. “Even as great a player as (Cardoso) is, you’ve also got to be concerned about the others.”

Cardoso dominated NC State with 22 points and 11 boards while making 10 of her 12 field goal attempts.

Kamilla Cardoso,Next up was Iowa’s coach Lisa Bluder, who spoke on how good Cardoso had been the day before the championship game.

“You know, Kamilla (Cardoso)’s been playing so well, (she) just runs the floor beautifully, rebounds incredibly, (and is) shooting the ball well,” Bluder said. “One person can’t stop her. There’s no way. I don’t know if two or three can stop her, to be quite honest. So I’m not going to give that up just to one person to have to try to handle that.”

But no one better than her own coach, Dawn Staley, had spoken on the second-half adjustment made in the semifinal win over NC State and alluded to her team needing to give Cardoso the ball if they are unsure of their next decision.

“If you want to score, have a plan. If you don’t, pass the ball. Give it to Kamilla, give her an easy look, knock down a 3 here or there when you’re open — very, very simple,” Staley said.

Her teammates would do so early on Sunday against Iowa, but it wasn’t gelling at first.

Cardoso’s performance in the first quarter could’ve been better. She still gave the rebounding presence needed with six rebounds in the period, but missed layups she’d usually make, and missed four of her first six field goal attempts.

It also didn’t help that Iowa went on a 10-0 run to start the game. And Caitlin Clark had already gotten going with 18 of her team’s 27 points in the period, breaking her own record for most points in a quarter in a national championship game.

If the Gamecocks were to finish on top, Cardoso had to mark her territory in the paint. And for the rest of the game, she did.

The Gamecocks started the second period on a 7-0 run, capped off by Cardoso completing a three-point play after she banked in the layup while fouled by Hannah Stuelke.

Cardoso grabbed seven points and made one block in the quarter, only missing one of her four field goal attempts.

“I think (I was) just trying to get the post-ups, and my teammates (were) finding me and giving me the ball, even though I didn’t shoot really good tonight,” Cardoso said. “I think just by — we just move the ball really good, and they were able to find me while I was open.”

The better Cardoso played, the better the Gamecocks played in holding the game in a chokehold.

She helped put the game away in the fourth, from blocking Addison O’Grady layup when Iowa tried to make a late game push, to out-rebounding (seven) Iowa’s whole team (four) in the last quarter.

With a little over 2:30 left in the game, Cardoso was fighting for position with O’Grady down low. Raven Johnson’s shot was a miss, and Cardoso’s position moved O’Grady back, and after Iowa’s Sydney Affolter jumped to fight for the ball with Cardoso, she fell to the ground and Cardoso simply banked in the layup to put the Gamecocks up eight.

Cardoso finished the game with 15 points, 17 rebounds and three blocks.

“It was amazing. I feel like I just wanted to get out there in this tournament and just play really well for my teammates, for my coaches, and to win the championship,” Cardoso said. “So I think that’s what I did.”

What makes this win for Cardoso even sweeter was her grind to becoming the Gamecocks’ best player. All three seniors on the roster this year were transfers, and Cardoso was the only returning player.

After winning Atlantic Coast Conference co-Defensive Player of the Year during her freshman year at Syracuse, Cardoso decided to transfer to South Carolina ahead of the 2021-22 season.

She had started 23 games for the Orange as a freshman and was starting from scratch as she competed with South Carolina’s “Freshies” class.

The “Freshies” were five players who came in together in 2019 and complied a record of 129-8 going into the 2023 Final Four. This included three of the 2023 WNBA Draft’s top 10 picks, featuring the No. 1 overall selection in Aliyah Boston.

Despite being the tallest player on the roster since her arrival, she stayed the path and waited her turn, never starting a game for the Gamecocks until her senior year.

Last season as a junior she averaged 9.8 points and 8.5 boards in 18.8 minutes a game, and of course played in the Gamecocks’ Final Four loss to Iowa.

Fast forward to her senior year and coach Staley gave the native Brazilian a chance to lead this team.

“I feel like, especially me, I’m international, and I don’t have my family here (in America). She’s just like a family for me, a family away from home, and I’m just so thankful to have her as a coach,” Cardoso said while crying.

Cardoso led the team this season in points (14.4) and rebounds (9.7) per game, along with tying for 13th in the nation in blocks (2.5). She averaged 18.5 points, 14.0 boards and 2.5 blocks in the Final Four games.

But most importantly, she capped off a unique college career with a second national championship and a Most Outstanding Player award, and cemented herself as one of the best players ever to come out of the South Carolina program.

Kamilla Cardoso Helps Lead South Carolina Gamecocks to NCAA Women’s Tournament Title

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Kamilla Cardoso is officially ending her college basketball career with a bang.

The 22-year-old Brazilian college basketball player helped her South Carolina Gamecocks vanquish the Iowa Hawkeyes on Sunday 87-75 in the NCAA women’s tournament title game to become the 10th team in Division I history to complete an undefeated season (38-0), joining UConn (six times), Baylor (2011-12), Tennessee (1997-98) and Texas (1985-86) as the only programs to achieve such a feat.

Kamilla CardosoThe emotional win came a year after a stunning Final Four defeat that ended what could’ve been a perfect season and national championship run.

“We’re unbeatable,” junior Bree Hall said. “That’s the statement that was made tonight.”

After graduating 2023 No. 1 WNBA draft pick Aliyah Boston and four other starters from last year, South Carolina became the first team since at least 2000 to win a title after returning none of its primary starters from a team that reached the Final Four the previous season.

“They made history,” coach Dawn Staley, overcome with emotion, told ESPN‘s Holly Rowe. “They etched their names in the history books when this is the unlikeliest group to do it.

“When [God] closes a door, he opens up a door that’s giving you unimaginable success.”

With its third national title in seven tournaments and second in three seasons — including a 109-3 record in that span — South Carolina tied Baylor and Stanford for the third-most championships ever and cemented its status as women’s college basketball’s newest dynasty, one that won’t be going anywhere anytime soon. Staley — a former two-time Player of the Year who played in three Final Fours but missed out on a championship herself — became the fifth head coach to win at least three national titles.

To clinch history, the Gamecocks defeated the team that ended their season last year in Iowa and Caitlin Clark, the presumptive No. 1 pick in next week’s WNBA draft.

Clark ended her collegiate career with the most points in Division I men’s or women’s history at 3,951. Staley thanked Clark during the postgame ceremony for her contributions to the sport, saying, “You are one of the GOATs of our game, and we appreciate you.”

Iowa, which beat South Carolina in the national semifinal last year before losing to the LSU Tigers in the title game, once more fell short of its first national championship.

“The biggest thing is it’s really hard to win these things,” Clark said. “I think I know that better than most people by now. To be so close twice really hurts.”

Cardoso finished with 15 points and a career-high 17 boards, becoming the fifth player with at least 15 points and 15 rebounds in a championship game in the past 25 seasons. Having already announced she is entering the draft, where she is expected to be an early pick, Cardoso is the only major contributor for South Carolina who won’t return next season.

“Kamilla Cardoso was not going to let us lose a game in the NCAA tournament,” Staley said. “She played through an injury, she played like one of the top picks in the WNBA draft and her teammates did something that no teammates have done for anybody who went to the WNBA in our program. They send her off as a national champion. So this is history for us.”

With Cardoso’s help, the Gamecocks outrebounded the Hawkeyes 51-29 on the afternoon, using those opportunities to score 30 second-chance points.

South Carolina trailed early Sunday, falling behind by as many as 11 in the first quarter as Clark put up the most points by a player in any quarter of a women’s championship game.

But the Gamecocks did what they do best and stormed back to hold the lead for over 21 minutes, including the entire second half. They extended their streak of winning games when having trailed by 10-plus points to 11, the longest active one in Division I, and became the first team to win the national championship game by at least 10 points after trailing by 10 points.

South Carolina went into the break up 49-46 and built its game-high 14-point lead in the fourth behind a barrage of 3-pointers from Hall and freshman Tessa Johnson, a marked difference from the meeting against Iowa last year when the Gamecocks hit just 4 of 20 shots from beyond the arc. They finished 8-for-19 from 3 on Sunday, and when they weren’t getting it done from there, they got it inside, managing 48 points in the paint.

Although the Hawkeyes pulled within five with a little over four minutes to go, Iowa got no closer.

Of South Carolina’s 38 wins this season, 31, including Sunday’s, were by double figures.

Three-point shooting wasn’t a trademark of the Gamecocks, but their depth was, and it was on display once more Sunday as South Carolina’s backups outscored Iowa’s 37-0, the most bench scoring for any team in a championship game since at least 2000.

That effort was led by freshman guard Johnson with a career-high 19 points, the fourth freshman in the past 25 seasons to lead her team in scoring in a national title game. She joined former Gamecock Destanni Henderson (2022) as the only players to set their career highs in a national championship game in the past 25 seasons.

Kamilla Cardoso Helps Lead South Carolina Gamecocks to Women’s NCAA Tournament Championship Game

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Kamilla Cardoso is one win away from a second national championship trophy…

With the 22-year-old Brazilian college basketball player and All-America center scoring 22 points, the South Carolina Gamecocks emphatically kept their unbeaten season going, advancing to the championship game of the women’s NCAA Tournament with a 78-59 victory over North Carolina State on Friday night.

Kamilla CardosoThe talented and tenacious Gamecocks (37-0) led by just one at halftime before putting their full arsenal on display in the third quarter.

They clamped down on defense, started knocking down 3-pointers and outscored the Wolfpack 29-6 to turn what had been a tense matchup into another one of their blowouts.

“We turned up the heat,” coach Dawn Staley said.

South Carolina will meet Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes for the national title on Sunday in a rematch of a Final Four game last year, when the Hawkeyes ended the Gamecocks’ perfect season.

After rallying past UConn in Friday’s later semifinal, Clark and her teammates will have their hands full. South Carolina appears to be on a mission.

“I could tell by our faces and voices,” said Gamecocks forward Ashlyn Watkins, who had 20 rebounds. “We wanted it more.”

Aziaha James scored 20 points on 6-of-17 shooting for No. 3 seed N.C. State (31-7), which knocked off a No. 1 and a No. 2 seed to get to Cleveland.

But the Wolfpack had no shot against the Gamecocks, who were a unanimous No. 1 most of the season in the AP Top 25 and are aiming to become the first undefeated national champions since UConn in 2016.

They look all but invincible.

“They just punched us in the mouth in the third quarter,” James said. “I felt like the third quarter really hurt us. I feel like we could have fought harder. It was 6-29. We can’t let things like that happen to win a championship.”

Cardoso added 11 rebounds while playing just 23 minutes.

She hurt her right leg late in the first half and returned in the third quarter, wearing a black compression sleeve. Staley had the luxury of resting her star center in the fourth quarter to make sure she’s ready for Sunday.

“She’s not going to like this answer, but she’s a beautiful Brazilian warrior,” Gamecocks guard Te-Hina Paopao said of Cardoso. “She’s just awesome, man. She’s going to play through some pain. She’s going to push through that. Knowing we have one more game, she’s definitely going to be OK.”

Watkins was just as dominant inside for the Gamecocks, getting 15 of her boards on the defensive end and scoring eight points. Raven Johnson added 13 points.

Saniya Rivers, who transferred from South Carolina to N.C. State after winning a title as a freshman, shot just 2 of 11 and had five turnovers as her former teammates made every touch a tough one.

N.C. State coach Wes Moore knew his team would have to play its best to have any chance of bringing down bigger, badder South Carolina.

On Thursday, he likened the semifinal to a David-vs.-Goliath matchup and promised his team would “put the stone in the sling and let it rip.”

The Wolfpack needed more than stones.

“I’ll probably throw up a few times when I watch that third quarter,” said Moore, who regretted not switching to a zone defense earlier. “I don’t feel like a very good coach after that butt-kickin’. But our players, you’ve got to have players.

“I always say you don’t win the Kentucky Derby with a mule. You’ve got to have horses.”

Relishing the underdog role, the Wolfpack, who lost a double-overtime heartbreaker to UConn two years ago in the Elite Eight, were hoping to replicate some of the magic the school conjured in 1983. Back then, N.C. State’s Jim Valvano-coached men’s team shocked the hoops world by beating heavily favored Houston in the NCAA title game — an upset that helped define March Madness.

But unlike a year ago, when South Carolina stormed into the Final Four in Dallas with an identical 36-0 record before losing to Iowa, the Gamecocks kept this season pristine.

The 6-foot-7 Cardoso made sure of it despite not moving as well as usual after the injury. South Carolina, which won by an average of 29.6 points this season, left no doubt after halftime, showing its dominance to a sellout crowd and national TV audience.

“Kamilla is a strength of ours,” Staley said. “She’s 6-7. She’s agile. She can command the paint. She plays with a desire to win. She asked for the ball a couple of times as well, meaning get her the ball.

“It’s that. It’s ‘I don’t want to lose, I don’t want our season to end in any way except the way I envisioned, and that’s winning the national championship.’ And when you can put your play behind your vision, it makes a beautiful memory.”

Paopao and Johnson made 3-pointers as the Gamecocks quickly stretched their lead to 10, and they closed the quarter with a dizzying 17-1 run that quieted a rowdy N.C. State crowd.

While this unprecedented season of women’s basketball has been largely driven by Clark’s assault on the record books with her logo-distance 3-pointers and charisma inspiring fans from coast to coast, one team rose to the top.

It’s been South Carolina all along.

These Gamecocks have ruled the roost with equal amounts of depth, talent and swagger.

Staley wasn’t sure what type of team she had when the season began after having to replace five starters from last year’s squad. She also worried about her young team’s carefree attitude and whether this group would mature.

But not only did the Gamecocks bond and get themselves together, they’re one win from cementing South Carolina as a dynasty.

“One more game left,” Paopao said. “We’re excited for that.”

South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso to Miss Upcoming Games to Join Brazilian National Team for Olympics Qualifying Event

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Kamilla Cardoso will be missing several South Carolina Gamecocks games… for good reason.

The 22-year-old Brazilian college basketball player, the top scorer and rebounder for NCAA Women’s Basketball’s South Carolina is leaving the team to join the Brazilian national team for its Olympic qualifying event this week.

Kamilla CardosoShe’ll miss the Gamecocks’ next two games at home, against Missouri on Thursday night and No. 11 UConn on February 11.

“We want the best players on our team,” Staley said. “But sometimes the best players are the best players that represent another country. When we recruited her, we said if there’s an opportunity to go with your national team, go with your national team.”

Brazil is hosting one of the four-team tournaments that serve as Olympic qualifiers. The Brazilians have a tough pool with Germany, Serbia and Australia in the group. The top three teams qualify for the 2024 Paris Games this summer.

“It only makes us feel good,” said Staley, who was the U.S. Olympic coach for the 2020 Tokyo Games in 2021.

Cardoso, at 6-foot-7, has been the best player on the Gamecocks and a top candidate for Southeastern Conference Player of the Year, averaging 13.7 points and 10 rebounds this season.

Her value was apparent in an 85-56 win over Ole Miss on Sunday. Cardoso picked up two quick fouls and had to sit much of the first two quarters as the Rebels got within 32-31 right before halftime.

When Cardoso returned to the court, she fueled a 16-2 run as South Carolina (21-0, 9-0 SEC) took control.

South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley said Cardoso will be missed. But her time on the bench in the first half gave South Carolina forwards like Ashlyn Watkins, Chloe Kitts and Sania Feagin more necessary minutes as they prepare to make up for Cardoso’s points, rebounds and blocks.

“No one has a rim protector like her,” Mississippi coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin said.

South Carolina will find that out for itself over the next two games.