South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso is unstoppable and makes her team the title-game favorite

CLEVELAND — There’s nothing easy about the Final Four. Not getting to it, not all the noise with it, not finally playing in the game when the time comes.

If there was, Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and UConn’s Paige Bueckers wouldn’t have shot a combined 6-for-20 in the first half of their much-anticipated clash.

And the refs wouldn’t have called a controversial offensive foul on the Huskies’ Aaliyah Edwards in the final seconds, shocking even the horde of Iowa fans in the stands.

It’s not even easy for the team that’s better than UConn or Iowa, undefeated No. 1 South Carolina. The Gamecocks (37-0) led N.C. State just 32-31 at halftime of the first national semifinal, and Wolfpack fans were dreaming of an upset.

But that game didn’t go down to the wire the way the nightcap did because the Gamecocks made sure it wouldn’t. Kamilla Cardoso in particular, thanks to her brilliant dominance of the post.

» READ MORE: Kamilla Cardoso leads South Carolina past N.C. State, 78-59, in Final Four

The 6-foot-7 Brazilian isn’t afraid to use her frame, and she also knows how to be economical with it: where to be and when to get there to make the shots as simple as possible.

Cardoso had 22 points against the Wolfpack on 10-of-12 shooting, 11 rebounds, and just two fouls. She even overcame an awkward fall late in the first half that forced her out to the concourse through intermission.

She was back on the floor when the second half began, wearing a different sleeve on her right leg from the one she had before, and she was in the fray pretty quickly. Cardoso hit back-to-back shots in the third quarter to reach the 20-point mark before the midpoint of the frame and give South Carolina a 12-point lead.

“She’s a beautiful Brazilian warrior,” South Carolina guard Te-Hina Paopao said. “She’s just awesome, man. She’s going to play through some pain; that’s who she is. And she loves playing the game, so she’s going to push through that.”

It was a reminder of a longtime March truism, one which these days stretches to April: Guards win you a lot of games, but post players win you the biggest ones.

Look no farther than Dawn Staley’s previous star centers. A’ja Wilson delivered the Gamecocks’ first national title, in 2017, and Aliyah Boston the second, in 2022. Both women are in town this weekend for a U.S. women’s basketball team pre-Olympics training camp, and Boston did double duty as an ESPN TV analyst. She even got to interview Staley after the final buzzer.

» READ MORE: Why this season could be the best coaching job of Dawn Staley’s career

One is great, two is a trend, and three is a tradition.

“You play to your strengths — Kamilla is a strength of ours,” Staley said in her postgame news conference. “She’s 6-7. She’s agile. She can command the paint. She plays with a desire to win.”

And Cardoso doesn’t mind letting you know.

“I think she asked for the ball a couple of times as well, meaning: Get her the ball,” Staley said, no coach’s order necessary. “And it’s that: I don’t want to lose. I don’t want our season to end in any way except the way I envisioned, and that’s winning the national championship. And when you can put your play behind your vision, it makes a beautiful memory.”

Cardoso has improved over the season, too, which Staley highlighted. (Let’s pause here to say again: South Carolina lost five players to the WNBA after last season, including Boston, and is 37-0.)

“Kamilla is a better practice player, she’s a better preparer, she’s more in tune,” Staley said. “She was more willing to do all those other things that create an advantage for her when she’s out there on the floor. And then she is imposing her will.”

» READ MORE: Iowa edges UConn in the Final Four, 71-69, and not just because of Caitlin Clark

It’s easy to call Sunday’s South Carolina-Iowa final (3 p.m., 6abc) a lot of things: a rematch of last year’s Final Four, Clark’s collegiate swan song (and Cardoso’s too), the most-anticipated final in years, potentially the most-watched women’s basketball game ever.

But another easy headline wouldn’t be accurate: an unstoppable force against an immovable object. For while Iowa’s offense is high-flying and South Carolina’s defense is ferocious, Cardoso deserves to also be called an unstoppable force.

There’s every reason to think she will be again versus the Hawkeyes because they don’t have enough size to match her — and, in fact, they might not have enough size to match the Gamecocks overall. Ashlyn Watkins, who had 20 rebounds vs. N.C. State, is 6-foot-3, and so is Sania Feagin. Chloe Kitts is 6-2.

On top of that, Staley played nine players on Friday, and all spent at least 11 minutes on the floor. Six played more than 20. Iowa’s five starters, by contrast, each played 36 minutes or more.

“It really is a luxury to have the ability to play as many players as we’re playing,” Staley said.

» READ MORE: South Jersey's Hannah Hidalgo wins the Dawn Staley award for the nation’s best women's college guard

It will be a national championship game, so those players will shake off any fatigue from Friday — or the bloody nose Iowa’s Kate Martin got.

They know they beat South Carolina last year, but they know how different that team was. Iowa was different too: it had Monika Czinano and Hannah Stuelke in the post, and Czinano then moved on to the pros.

As electrifying as Clark is, it’s hard to see her team stopping Cardoso. If that proves true, South Carolina will prove the most unstoppable force and finish an undefeated season with a title.