South Carolina holds off Gardner-Webb to end homestand on high note
Maik Kotsar ran threw traffic and tossed up a line-drive that stuck to the back of the rim before falling through the hoop. Jair Bolden stepped back for a few inches of separation, rose and buried a contested jumper.
South Carolina had scored on near-consecutive possessions, but with a degree of difficultly that summed up another challenging night in Colonial Life Arena for the home team.
The Gamecocks kept Gardner-Webb winless on Friday, but it was hardly a cruise.
“That was easy,” USC coach Frank Martin said after a 74-69 win that wasn’t truly decided until the final seconds.
South Carolina will next head to Mexico for the Cancun Challenge, opening with Wichita State on Tuesday. The Shockers are 4-0 with a 22-point win over Gardner-Webb. USC is 4-1 with a different kind of victory over the Bulldogs (0-5).
Jermaine Couisnard made a series of clutch plays down the stretch so the Gamecocks could avoid a second straight loss to end this homestand.
“Somehow, someway, we battled and survived,” Martin said.
Couisnard scored a career-high 16 points, 11 coming in the final 8:43.
Gardner-Webb took a 69-68 lead on an Eric Jamison layup with 1:21 left. On the ensuing possession, the Gamecocks patiently worked GWU’s 2-3 zone until they found Couisnard at the elbow. The 6-foot-4 redshirt freshman turned and hit a leaner over a 6-8 defender’s reach while getting fouled. His three-point play was his second in just over a minute and gave USC an advantage it wouldn’t relinquish.
“I felt like I just ran my lane and the ball came back around to me,” Couisnard said. “And I felt like it was a great shot and I took it.”
Gardner-Webb twice had opportunities to tie, but Jose Perez missed a jumper with 53 seconds left and a 3-point attempt with two seconds left.
A.J. Lawson grabbed the latter’s rebound and iced the game with a couple free throws.
“It’s not easy to do what they did and give ourselves a chance to win on the road,” said Gardner-Webb coach Tim Craft. “We’ll move on and hopefully get better for the next one.”
This was the second time GWU played at Colonial Life Arena in eight months. The Bulldogs, as a 16-seed, led Virginia at halftime of a first round NCAA Tournament game before falling to the eventual national champions by 15.
They put a deeper scare into USC.
South Carolina was coming off a surprising loss to Boston University covered in offensive woes. The Gamecocks had too many lulls and missed 18 of 22 3-point attempts, allowing the Terriers to keep their opposition at bay down the stretch of an eight-point win.
Three nights later, USC was in a similar funk. It missed 16 of its first 24 shots and lacked rhythm against a team that entered 204th nationally in defensive efficiency, according to KenPom.com. Kotsar’s runner and Bolden’s step-back tied the game at 27 with 1:58 left in the first half. Carolina’s first lead of the night didn’t come until the 1:21 mark thanks to a couple Justin Minaya free throws.
The Gamecocks led 32-29 at the break and could only stretch their advantage to as many as eight in the second half.
USC finished 5 of 19 from beyond the arc. The last of those misses was tipped out by Kotsar to Bolden, who was fouled with 15 seconds left.
“It was a big play,” said Lawson. “He did a lot of hustle things throughout the game and that was key right there because it gave us another possession.”
Kotsar had 11 points and six boards. Lawson had 16, four rebounds and four assists.
And one: An ugly 12 of 21 performance from the free throw line in the BU loss was followed by a 15 of 17 effort (88 percent) against GWU. The Gamecocks went 12 of 14 at the stripe in the second half.
Personal foul: South Carolina is now 9 of its last 41 from 3-point range.
Tip-in: It took five games for Martin to make his first tweak to the starting lineup. Freshman Wildens Leveque started in place of Alanzo Frink at the “four,” giving USC a pair of 6-foot-11 players on the frontline.
NEXT
Who: Wichita State vs. South Carolina
When: 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 26
Where: Cancun, Mexico
TV: CBS Sports Network
This story was originally published November 22, 2019 at 10:23 PM.
