Couisnard's 33 points propel South Carolina past LSU 77-75

The Gamecocks extended their SEC win streak to three against LSU on Saturday

Game Recap: Men's Basketball | 2/19/2022

COLUMBIA (AP) – Jermaine Couisnard scored a career-high 33 points on 12-for-18 shooting and South Carolina rallied to beat LSU 77-75 on Saturday for its third straight win. Keyshawn Bryant made two foul shots with 1:51 left to give South Carolina a 74-73 lead. Erik Stevenson's layup 13 seconds later - off an LSU turnover - padded the lead before Eric Gaines sank two foul shots to get LSU back within a point with 34 seconds to go.

Devin Carter missed two free throws at 19 seconds, but Darius Days missed a 3-pointer with 3 seconds remaining after an LSU timeout. Bryant grabbed the rebound, was fouled, and made 1 of 2 from the line for South Carolina with 1.5 seconds left. LSU never got off a shot as time expired.

Trailing 58-47 with 13:16 remaining, South Carolina went on a 21-9 run in a little more than five minutes to capture a 68-67 lead for its first since Bryant's opening jump shot. Stevenson scored 15 and Carter had 10 off the bench for the Gamecocks. Despite missing 19 of 27 3-pointers, South Carolina (16-10, 7-7 SEC) was 18 of 24 inside the arc and finished 26 for 51 (51%) overall.

Reserve Tari Eason scored 21 points with 10 rebounds and Days scored 18 for LSU. The Tigers missed 9 of 22 free-throw attempts. LSU (19-8, 7-7), which saw its three-game winning streak come to an end, travels to play fourth-ranked Kentucky on Wednesday. The Gamecocks host Mississippi State on Wednesday.
KEY STATS
> The Gamecocks shot 51 percent from the floor while only allowing LSU to shoot 44 percent from the field. It's the 14th time this season Carolina has outshot its opponent and is 14-0 when it does so.
> After only making two three-pointers in the opening half of play, the Gamecocks shot 40 percent (6-for-15) from beyond the arc in the second half.
> LSU took advantage of the Gamecocks' 20 turnovers. The Tigers scored 28 points off turnovers, while Carolina only score 9 points off of LSU's 15 turnovers.
> LSU forced 20 turnovers, 12 of which came via Tiger steals.

NOTABLES
> Jermaine Couisnard scored a career-best 33 points. He scored 18 first-half points, which surpassed his season high.
> Couisnard's performance was the highest-scoring for him since Feb. 5, 2020, against Ole Miss when he scored 28.
> Couisnard's 12 made field goals was a career high and it was the first time since March 15, 2016, a Gamecock has made 12 or more field goals.
> Couisnard's performance was the first 30-point game by Gamecock since Jan. 6, 2021, when AJ Lawson put up 30 points against Texas A&M.
> The Gamecocks shot 51 percent from the floor, which marked the sixth time they've done so this season. The Gamecocks moved to 6-0 when they make more than half of their field goal attempts.

UP NEXT
> South Carolina remains at Colonial Life Arena for another big SEC game against Mississippi State (14-11, 5-7 SEC). The Bulldogs are 0-7 on the road this season. Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. (ET) on Wednesday with Roy Philpott (pxp) and Mark Wise (analyst) on-site and on the call for the SEC Network broadcast.