March Madness has reached its pinnacle as the finalists, the Iowa Hawkeyes and the South Carolina Gamecocks are geared up to face off at the NBA’s Cleveland Cavaliers’ home court, the Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse in Ohio. With their firm determination and relentless efforts, both teams have reached the final stage and will be playing against each other tomorrow. While they don’t need an introduction, this will be Caitlin Clark and Kamilla Cardoso’s last showdown of their college basketball career as they both will be moving forward with the 2024 WNBA draft.

Although the rosters on both ends are tough, these two stand out when it comes to competitiveness, dominance, and scoring. Moreover, their 6-foot-above stance makes them one of the best competitors in women’s college basketball. Let’s compare the two scoring giants of college women’s basketball going after the national championship title tomorrow.

Caitlin Clark’s March Madness mastery

Yesterday, the Hawkeyes rallied past UConn in a 71-69 Final Four victory. It will be the first time when the nation’s leading scorer playing in the national championship game. We can start off with her March Madness display, but it will be incomplete without the mention of Clark’s marvelous achievements through the course of this season. If not all, in her post-season run from mid-February till early days in March, Clark had already broken several records set by Kelsey Plum, AIAW legend Lynette Woodard, and Pete Maravich. One by one, she shattered their long-standing milestones while she dribbled past every game coming her way.

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Clark’s March Madness stats include an average of 31.7 points, 7.3 rebounds, and 9 assists per game. This season, she has garnered 1024 points, adding to her career total of 3921 points with a career scoring average of 28.4 points. There is not even a single game in which Clark has scored below 20 points and has gone scoring up to 49 points.

Given that, her performance in the NCAA Tournament has been consistent. Starting in the first round, she scored 27 points, 8 rebounds, and, 10 assists against Holy Cross, leading Iowa to a 91-65 win. In the second round, Iowa went after West Virginia and punched their ticket to Sweet 16 with Clark present as a scoring propellor, hooping 32 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 assists, defeating the Mountaineers in a 64-54 win.

Then, they showed the Colorado Mountaineers their way to the locker room in an 89-68 victory. Going up next was Iowa’s much-awaited rematch of last year’s championship game against LSU, with the scales weighing down towards Iowa this time as they defeated the 2023 defending champions in a 94-87 Elite 8 win.

This brings us down to yesterday’s Final Four battle against Paige Bueckers and Co. This game turned out to be a real struggle for Clark as she was limited to score in mere crumbs. Despite such strong defense, Clark managed to score 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists.

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Tomorrow, Clark will be locking horns with one of the brutal players on South Carolina’s roster, Kamilla Cardoso. Let’s explore what this dominant Gamecock has got in her pocket this season.

Kamilla Cardoso’s killer strikes in March Madness

The heart of the unbeatable team, Kamilla Cardoso danced it off just before the Gamecocks were stepping in to go against NC State in the Final Four. Owning her moves, she showed off her Brazilian soccer dribbling skills and tried to shoot the overhead scoreboard. This was the crazy energy shake-off by Cardoso. Regarding her groovy performance, Ashlynn Watkins commented, “She’s just silly and she’s always doing crazy stuff like that for no reason.”

Her average in the national tournament has been 14.3 points, 9.5 rebounds, and 2 assists per game. Grossing her college basketball career points at 1312 with an average of 10.6, Cardoso boasts 303 rebounds this season.

Her March Madness scores were a rollercoaster ride with 12 points, and 10 rebounds in the second round against North Carolina, leading the Gamecocks to an 88-41 victory. Elevated to the Sweet 16, Cardoso tallied 22 points and 7 rebounds on the scoreboard against Indiana Hoosiers, making a close 79-75 victory to the Elite 8, where Cardoso again dialed down to a score of 12 points and 9 rebounds, getting South Carolina a 70-58 win over Oregon State.

This leads to South Carolina’s yesterday’s Final Four face-off against NC State, with Cardoso bringing one of her ‘A’ games to the court and scoring 22 points, 11 rebounds, and 2 significant blocks.

Conclusively, Clark and Cardoso’s stats say a lot about their scoring prowess, however, only tomorrow will tell how these two perform on the court against each other to win the national championship title.

On one hand, it will be the Hawkeyes aiming for their first-ever national title. The matchup indeed holds much more significance with Clark playing as the first all-time leading scorer in the national championship tournament. On the other hand, it will be the Gamecocks, who knocked down every opponent in their way and maintained their unbeatable streak, which might be a record in its own, to the final championship game. Thus, the significance has added weight to the level these athletes will be playing as it will be one of their career-defining matchups.