Her frizzy hair dyed a maroon closely matching South Carolina‘s garnet, Kamilla Cardoso was impossible to miss as she stood near mid-court inside Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse on Friday night
The center of attention. In some circles, the mean girl.
With the biggest game of the season minutes away, Cardoso showed no nerves on the Final Four stage. She owned it by dancing, showing off soccer dribbling skills developed in her native Brazil and then trying several times to shoot the ball off the giant scoreboard hanging 100 feet above her head.
Cardoso being Cardoso.
“She’s just silly,” said teammate Ashlyn Watkins, “and she’s always doing crazy stuff like that for no reason.”
Maybe misunderstood by opponents and outsiders, Cardoso, who left her family behind in 2016 at just 15 to pursue her dream of playing high-level basketball in the U.S., is the main reason the undefeated Gamecocks (37-0) are favored to win their second national title in three years on Sunday when they face Iowa and superstar Caitlin Clark.
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