Kamilla Cardoso hits game-winning three to beat Tennessee in SEC tournament semifinals

South Carolina forward Kamilla Cardoso picked the perfect moment of her career to hit her first-ever 3-point shot: Down two in the final seconds of an SEC women’s basketball tournament semifinal.

With seconds left on the clock, Cardoso caught an inbounds at the top of the key and defenders sagged off. She stepped to the line and fired up a shot that banked in and gave South Carolina a 74-73 win over Tennessee.

Seconds later, she was at the bottom of a dog pile at center court.

KAMILLA. FREAKING. CARDOSO!!! pic.twitter.com/KxV40Osnhe

— South Carolina Women's Basketball (@GamecockWBB) March 9, 2024

“I’m very happy,” Cardoso said on ESPN minutes after hitting the shot. “I feel like my teammates needed me. I didn’t have the best game I could have. I think I was off all night. So I’m just happy I made the shot and I’m able to take them to the finals.”

Prior to that 3, Cardoso had scored 10 points and pulled down five rebounds, both well off her season averages.

And apparently the plan was not initially for her to attempt a 3 for the win when she had never made one in her career.

“Well, coach wanted me to get the ball on the top of the key and get it ‘Pao [Te-Hina Paopao], and then she told me to shoot it and I was like, ‘OK.’ I practice them in practice, so I just stepped back and shot it,” Cardoso said.

Dawn Staley explained a bit more about the game-winning play

Given Cardoso’s acumen around the rim and lack of shooting, Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley had an inkling she’d be open and at least the smart choice to have the inbounds pass go to. And with no timeouts, once the ball did end up in Cardoso’s hands, all parties had to act fast with the remaining seconds ticking down.

Cardoso turned, squared up to the basket with Tennessee leading by two, and banked in what might be the biggest shot of her career. And she did it in front of those closest to her, who had traveled from Brazil to see her play.

“We didn’t have any timeouts but I knew with the players that we had on the floor pretty much the only player that was going to be open was Kamilla,” Staley said. “So I just told her, Raven [Johnson], to get the ball to Kamilla and then I told Kamilla, ‘Hey pass it to Pao’ [Te-Hina Paopao] and at the last second, I was like ‘Kamilla shoot it.’ Oh my god, it couldn’t happen to a better person. She’s worked. And her mom, her sister, her agent, the first time they get a chance to see her play and she gives them that. Unbelievable.”

Staley was asked what went on her mind in making that split-second decision to yell to Cardoso to shoot the ball.

And she deftly censored herself while on-air, not repeating quite the language she had used in the heat of the moment.

“Well it was like 1.1 seconds,” Staley said. “She didn’t really have the opportunity to pass it to ‘Pao and I saw how far they were playing off of her. I would have played off of her as well. So you know the last thing that came into my mind was ‘Kamilla, shoot that blanking blank.’ That’s what I said, ‘Shoot that blanking blank.'”