Oregon’s Couisnard scores 40, beats previous group

Brooke Pryor, ESPN Staff WriterMar 21, 2024, 08:04 PM ET Close Formerly covered the Kansas City Chiefs for the Kansas City Star and Oklahoma University for the Oklahoman.PITTSBURGH– As the ball sprinkled through the bottom of the net in the very first half of No. 11 Oregon’s first-round conference with No. 6 South Carolina, Jermaine Couisnard heard Jacobi Wright, his former teammate, begin celebrating.”It’s cash, “Wright stated, according to Couisnard, as Wright’s pail provided the Gamecocks a three-point lead with 9:01 to enter the half Thursday.Couisnard, who invested the first 4 years of his career at South Carolina before moving to Oregon when coach Frank Martin was fired in 2022, was energized by Wright’s trash talk. Two belongings later on, Couisnard struck his very first 3-pointer. Thirty seconds after that, he included another, this one on a quick break off a South Carolina turnover. “That’s what got me going, “Couisnard stated.”I’m a competitor, which’s like a guy that I kind of mentored when I was there. When he struck a 3 and he got to talking … however it was enjoyable, man. Those guys kind of made me. I grew a lot. I discovered a lot when I was there. So I value those guys more than anything. “Editor’s Picks Couisnard ended up the Ducks’87-73 win with 40 points, setting a record for points scored by an Oregon player in an NCAA

competition game and likewise at PPG Paints Arena. He also scored the most points by a Pac-12 player in an NCAA competition game since Costs Walton gathered 44 in the 1973 national championship.”He was truly feeling it,”said Oregon coach Dana Altman, who transfers to 8-0 in first-round games with the Ducks.”He had a couple threes that were tough, and I think that actually got him going. He got in the paint and completed some hard shots. He simply had it going. Those are games every player dreams of, you understand, getting it going and getting it entering the NCAA tournament is an actually excellent sensation. “It was a big-time performance. They tried hedging those choices really difficult and getting him out of some ball screen action due to the fact that he ‘d been actually effective

with that. However he just found another method to rating.”Couisnard struck 5-of-9 from beyond the arc en route to shooting 14-of-22 from the flooring. 4 of those triples came after halftime as he poured in 26 second-half points. Thanks to Couisnard and forward N’Faly Dante, who had 23 points of his own, the Ducks outlived an enemy that refused to disappear down the stretch.”I wish we had actually discovered a way to slow him down much better,”South Carolina coach Lamont Paris said.” … He was aggressive, going to the basket. And I believe a few of those, I suggest he hit a floater against the zone that we fouled him on. He makes hard shots. He doesn’t average 40, however he makes hard shots. … We’re typically actually good defensively. He had a good game.”Couisnard likewise included 6 helps and went 7-for-7 from the free toss line. However playing against his previous group wasn’t his only inspiration. There was another familiar face in the crowd.”This is among my grandma’s very first games,”

Couisnard stated.”So I mored than happy to see her be able to eliminate here and play in front of her and have the ability to enjoy me play. It wasn’t [South Carolina] It was simply me being competitive. I understand those guys have a great group there. Coach Lamont did a wonderful task this year. It was just me simply revealing my will, just trying to complete to win. “