South Carolina basketball alum goes off for new career high in WNBA

South Carolina basketball alum Kamilla Cardoso had the start of her professional career delayed by a shoulder injury, but now that she has 22 games under her belt, the two-time National Champion is coming into her own as a WNBA rookie.

On Friday night, Cardoso and her Chicago Sky team took on the Connecticut Sun (on the road), and the Brazilian post player had her top scoring performance as a professional player. Shooting an uber-efficient 8-11 from the floor, Cardoso scored 18 points to set a new high mark for her young career. She also added 6 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 steal as her rebounding number was affected by teammate Angel Reese gobbling up what felt like all the boards in a remarkable 20-rebound performance.

The big-time performance from Chicago's twin posts wasn't enough for the Sky to end the nigth in the "W" column, however. Falling by a score of 82-80, the strong combined effort from Cardoso and Reese allowed the Sky to win the rebounding battle 42-30 and outscore the Sun 42-34 in the paint.

In her four games since the WNBA's hiatus for the Summer Olympics, Cardoso has played some of her most consistent ball as a pro. She set two new personal scoring records during that time and has shot comfortably better than 50% in each contest.

The Sky are desperately holding onto the hope of being involved in the postseason conversation as they sit in the 8-seed at the time of this writing (eight teams make the WNBA Playoffs).

Cardoso and the Sky will be back in action again on Sunday when they return home to Wintrust Arena to host the two-time defending WNBA Finals champion Las Vegas Aces and the best player in the world, fellow South Carolina basketball legend A'ja Wilson.