South Carolina Basketball: Gamecock star named to All-Olympic Qualifying Team

South Carolina Basketball star Kamilla Cardoso missed the Gamecocks' last two games to participate in Olympic qualifying. While there, she was chosen as one of the top players at the event.

The 6'7" Cardoso did everything she could to help Brazil advance to the Summer Olympics, but they fell just short of qualifying for the Games as they played in the toughest group in the qualifying tournament.

In Cardoso's three games, she averaged 15.3 points and 11 rebounds, and she had games with 4 assists, 3 steals, and 1 block during the qualifying tournament.Cardoso led the entire Olympic qualifying tournament in rebounding and was fifth in scoring. She shot 53.3% from the floor and 73.7% from the free throw line. Her player efficiency rating of 20.7 was one of the best in the tournament, as well.

Her impressive showing in Brazil earned Cardoso a spot on the All-Olympic Qualifying Team "All-Star 5." She was the only Brazilian player to make the team. Cardoso was joined by Yvonne Anderson (Serbia), Bec Allen (Australia), Ezi Magbegor (Australia), and Leonie Fiebich (Germany).

Cardoso will be back in the States this week and should be available for South Carolina basketball's games against Tennessee and Georgia this week. The Gamecocks will face Tennessee in Knoxville, and the Georgia game (the team's 4th sellout in a row on Sundays) will be the College GameDay game of the week. With a strong attendance finish to the year, Carolina will set new all-time records for average and total attendance.

The #1-ranked Gamecocks will need Cardoso to play at her Olympic qualifying level to have a realistic shot at winning their third national championship. The probably All-SEC center is a semi-finalist for the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Award and is USC's leading scorer this season.