Jermaine Couisnard spent the last year and a half fighting things off the court.
Hardships in his personal life and back home in Indiana bled over into hardships on the court as he struggled to build on an All-Freshman year.
Now Couisnard—in arguably his best place mentally since his freshman season—is fighting in a good way on the court as he and the Gamecocks’ seniors are at the heart of South Carolina’s three-game win streak.
“It tells you a lot. I believe we’re fighters. I believe we never go away,” Couisnard said. “As long as we stay together and believe what coach preaches to us every single day I believe we’re a pretty good team.”
The Gamecocks got yet another comeback win Saturday night, this time rallying from as much as 10 points down to beat Texas A&M going away on the road.
They did it on the backs of Couisnard and the other seniors on the roster with James Reese, Erik Stevenson and Keyshawn Bryant all coming up big down the stretch.
Couisnard hit the go-ahead bucket while Reese finished with a game-high 20 points to pair with a clutch three from Stevenson in the last five minutes and another double-digit scoring performance from Bryant.
When the dust settled, those four combined for 58 points on 19-for-38 shooting (8-for-16 from three) with 17 rebounds and 10 assists to just eight turnovers.
Over the last three games those four are averaging 40.5 points, 7.75 assists and five turnovers per game. They're shooting a combined 47.9 percent from the field, 37.3 percent from three and 70 percent from the line while drawing 35 combined fouls.
“I feel like we all know our part on the team. We know if we’re down we can’t get discouraged or doubt and think the game’s over,” Couisnard said. “I feel like the main thing was to stay together.”
And it’s those four helping dictate the Gamecocks’ personality and ability to weather inconsistent first halves only to dominate out of halftime.
Over their last three games the Gamecocks (13-7, 4-4 SEC) are outscoring opponents 138-87 and it’s in large part because of those four seniors and Couisnard helping set the tone from the point guard spot.
“Jermaine’s a really good player. Jermaine’s a young man who deserves good things to come his way, just as Keyshawn,” Frank Martin said. “I’m really proud of those guys. Then James and Erik, those guys came in and reenergize me from day one. To win on the road, especially in conference play, you have to have guys that know how to close out these games. That’s what those four guys did for us today.”
The job is far from over and the Gamecocks’ schedule doesn’t get any easier with three games against Quad I opponents on the docket, including one against soon-to-be top-10 Kentucky.
But the Gamecocks are getting good minutes from their older players and it’s paying off in the win-loss column.
“I like this team. This team is my personality. We got fighters,” Martin said. “These guys fight for me, they fight to win and they fight for each other. It’s fun to be around.”
