South Carolina women's basketball: Kamilla Cardoso's double-double leads the Gamecocks to the title game

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Kamilla Cardoso survived an injury scare and then South Carolina dominated the third quarter to beat NC State 78-59 and advance to the national championship game.

South Carolina blew open a one-point halftime game with a 29-6 third quarter. South Carolina had begun to assert itself in the second quarter, but ten first-half turnovers kept NC State close.

The Gamecocks cut out the turnovers, committing just two in the third quarter, got the ball inside to their dominant bigs, and locked in on defense.  Seven different Gamecocks scored in the third quarter. 

With Cardoso and Ashlyn Watkins dominating the paint (South Carolina outrebounded NC State 15-5 in the third), NC State switched to a zone. That freed up South Carolina’s shooters. Te-Hina Paopao hit a pair of threes and South Carolina went 5-9 as a team after shooting just 2-9 in the first half.

“I think the biggest difference was our defense,” Bree Hall said. W”e really honed it on defense. And then the other thing was that we just kept taking the shots that we were shooting in the first half. A lot of them weren’t going down. And they started going down in the second half.”

NC State shot just 1-11 in the third quarter and committed four turnovers. The Wolfpack shot 32.3% for the game and 6-23 from three. Aziah James continued her hot scoring with 20 points, but she was just 6-17 and 3-10 to do it.

Both teams got off to a slow start and the game was tied at 16 going into the second quarter. Cardoso took over for the Gamecocks, scoring the first 12 points of the frame. Tessa Johnson finally broke Cardoso’s stranglehold on the basket with a jumper with 2:45 left in the half. 

“You play to your strengths. Kamilla is a strength of ours,” Dawn Staley said. “She’s 6-7. She’s agile. She can command the paint. She plays with a desire to win. I think she asks for the ball a couple of times as well, meaning get her the ball. And it’s that I don’t want to lose (mentality). I don’t want our season to end in any way, except the way I envisioned, and that’s winning the national championship.”

That put South Carolina up 30-24 and on the verge of pulling away. But then Cardoso got her feet tangled up on a shot attempt and hit the floor. She limped around for a couple of possessions and then headed straight to the locker room. 

That seemed to take the wind out of South Carolina’s sails and NC State finished on a 7-2 run to make it 32-31 at halftime. 

Cardoso got treatment in the locker room, switched from a white to a black sleeve on her right leg, and seemed to spark the Gamecocks’ dominant third quarter.

“Oh, definitely,” Tessa Johnson said. “We need Kamilla out there. We need her.”

Cardoso wasn’t even sure what happened but said she feels fine and will be full speed on Sunday. She played just 23 minutes but finished with 22 points on 10-12 shooting and 11 rebounds. 

“I feel like when I’m feeling it, nobody can stop me. It’s just amazing,” Cardoso said. “I feel like they needed me and I needed them. So I just wanted to be out there no matter what. I just went out and tried to keep playing.”

Watkins complimented Cardoso with eight points and 20 rebounds as South Carolina outrebounded NC State 46-32. Raven Johnson added 13 points on 3-5 shooting from three plus five assists. Paopao finished with 10 points and six assists.

South Carolina shot 50% from the floor and 8-19 from three. South Carolina committed just five turnovers in the second half. For the game, South Carolina had 14 points off 12 NC State turnovers. NC State had nine points off turnovers.

Notes:

Indiana women’s basketball player Arielle Wisne performed the national anthem. … Darius Rucker attended the game. “Wagon Wheel” played when he was shown on the video board. A’ja Wilson, Allisha Gray, Ty Harris, Laeticia Amihere, and Zia Cooke also attended the game. Aliyah Boston worked the game for ESPN. … Legendary NC State coach Kay Yow was honored between the third and fourth quarters and cancer survivors in the crowd were recognized. … Watkins is the first Gamecock with 20 or more rebounds since Aliyah Boston had 22 against North Carolina in the 2022 Sweet 16. … South Carolina had 18 assists on 33 baskets while NC State had just five assists on 20 baskets. … Dawn Staley’s outfit: Staley wore a black Louis Vuitton jacket. … The game was a sellout. … South Carolina advances to the national championship game against Iowa on Sunday.

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