Head coach Dawn Staley has built the South Carolina Gamecocks into women’s college basketball’s biggest powerhouse. South Carolina has won two nation championships over the last six years, and it will enter the 2024 women’s NCAA Tournament as the top favorite to win it all again.
South Carolina was 30-0 entering its SEC tournament semifinal game against Tennessee on Saturday afternoon. It looked like this would be another easy victory for Staley’s team: the Gamecocks held Tennessee to just six first quarter points, and took a 12-point lead into the fourth quarter. That’s when the Vols started a furious rally. When star wing Rickea Jackson made a layup with 25 seconds left, Tennessee took the lead and had South Carolina on the brink of their first loss of the season.
South Carolina had one chance left to win the game, inbounding from halfcourt with 1.1 seconds left. It inbounded to star center Kamilla Cardoso — arguably the best player on the team, a future WNBA first round draft pick, but not exactly a shooter. Cardoso had never made a three-pointer in her college career.
Cardoso caught the ball and had no choice but to shoot it just before the buzzer. She banked in the game-winning three to keep South Carolina’s perfect season alive. Watch the shot here:
Cardoso had only attempted one three-pointer over the course of her four-year college career, and that’s back when she was a freshman at Syracuse. She had never attempted a three in nearly three full seasons at South Carolina … until now.
Tennessee’s defense … what are you doing? The Vols certainly had Cardoso as a non-shooter on the scouting report, but it’s not like she had enough time left to truly attack a closeout. The Vols needed some sort of contest there. Instead, South Carolina got a wide, wide, wide open three with the game on the line, and Cardoso got lucky with the bank shot to win the gam.
Tennessee had a 97.5 percent chance to win the game with six seconds left. Whoops!
Tennessee alum Candace Parker called her Las Vegas Aces teammate A’ja Wilson, a South Carolina alum, to taunt her about the Vols giving USC their first loss. The faces say it all.
Always closeout on an open shooter, kids, even if the player in question had never taken a three before. South Carolina’s undefeated season lives to see another day.
