South Carolina women's basketball finds post production without Kamilla Cardoso
COLUMBIA – Few teams can play a game without their leading scorer and rebounder and win by 38 points. For South Carolina women’s basketball, games like that are just another opportunity for someone else to star.
On Thursday, the No. 1 Gamecocks (22-0, 10-0 SEC) found plenty of production to fill in the gap against Missouri (11-12, 2-8) while senior center Kamilla Cardoso plays for Team Brazil in an Olympic qualifying tournament. Two forwards scored in double figures, helping the Gamecocks dump the Tigers 83-45 at Colonial Life Arena.
“They worked hard these past two days,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said. “They’ve been wanting an opportunity to play more minutes than they usually play. They’ve been wanting that. It’s just unfortunate you have Kamilla, who’s going to play 26-30 minutes. There’s not a whole lot of minutes left for somebody else.”
With more minutes up in the air Thursday, South Carolina’s four bigs filled in the gap Cardoso left, combining for 38 points and 11 blocks.
Sophomore forward Chloe Kitts carried the load for the Gamecocks in the first half, scoring all 12 of her points before the break. While she was 0-for-3 from the field in eight second half minutes, she grabbed three more boards to finish with eight.
“I think we’re all pretty locked in,” Kitts said. “Kamilla is a big piece of what we do, but at the end of the day we all came together, we all stepped up and we played good as a team.”
The Gamecocks also received 11 points and five rebounds from junior forward Sania Feagin and nine points and seven rebounds from sophomore forward Ashlyn Watkins.
The absence of a 6-foot-7 Cardoso was hardly noticeable on defense, either.
Cardoso was leading the Gamecocks with 60 blocks. Starting in her place Thursday was Watkins, who swatted three shots to tie Cardoso’s total. Kitts, who has started most of the season alongside Cardoso, stepped up with a career-high five blocks.
“I didn’t realize I had that many blocks,” Kitts said. “The ball kind of just came to my hands. We had great movement on defense, so my teammates helped me get an opportunity to block the other team’s shots.”
While Cardoso has been the main option for South Carolina’s offense, the Gamecocks didn’t need to search deep for options to fill the gap against Missouri.
“They just bring in another All-American,” Missouri coach Robin Pingeton said. “Cardoso is an incredible player, but they’ve got a lot of players on that roster that are really elite and it’s just next man up mentality.”
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Staley said she was impressed by senior center Sakima Walker in her 12 minutes on the court. Walker has drawn the short straw in the rotation this season, averaging a team-low eight minutes a game, but Staley said the entire roster will have chances to make the most of playing time while Cardoso remains out.
Cardoso will be out again Sunday (2 p.m., ESPN), when South Carolina gets another test against a ranked team as No. 9 UConn comes to Columbia. UConn’s tallest player, 6-6 junior forward Amari DeBerry, is averaging less than six minutes a game and the Huskies don’t play another player taller than 6-3, providing the Gamecocks another opportunity to work through its talented post.
“I do feel comfortable going into UConn with those four impacting the game, being able to play,” Staley said. “I won’t hesitate in putting any of them in. They earned my trust when it comes to that.”
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: How South Carolina is finding post production without Kamilla Cardoso
