South Carolina Stuns No. 10 Kentucky on Buzzer Beater
COLUMBIA, S.C. – Freshman Jermaine Couisnard hit a 3-pointer as the buzzer sounded and South Carolina rallied from 14 points down in the second half to stun No. 10/12 Kentucky 81-78 on Wednesday night.
Couisnard had a career-high 26 points, including his game-winner that banked in for the Gamecocks (9-7, 1-2 Southeastern Conference). When it went through the net, Couisnard and his teammates ran around the court in celebration as the fans erupted in cheers.
The loss ended a four-game winning streak for Kentucky, which blew a second-half 14-point lead for the second straight game at South Carolina.
“Every road game you play in this league is a hard game,” UK head coach John Calipari said. “And this was a hard game. Give them credit though. It wasn’t us. They were physical, they made every free throw when they had to. I liked the fact that we got it to a tie ballgame. I like the fact that happened. That meant we were walking in timeouts and trying to do the right thing. But, you know, when you play like we did and you give them so many offensive rebounds, that’s when a team throws in a 30-footer that banks in.”
Moments earlier, Immanuel Quickly banked home a shot with 4.1 seconds to go that tied things at 78. Quickly led Kentucky (12-4, 3-1) with 20 points, including UK’s final seven points with less than a minute to go after the Wildcats had fallen behind by six.
“He was good,” Calipari said.
Keyshawn Bryant scored 15 points for the Gamecocks, who had four players in double figures.
Kentucky led by 14 less than five minutes into the second half and was still up 54-41 on EJ Montgomery’s two foul shots with 11:41 left. That’s when Justin Minaya started a 27-14 run over the next seven minutes that ended with Couisnard’s basket off the glass to tie things at 68-all. After Ashton Hagans put Kentucky up again with two foul shots, Minaya answered with a 3-pointer that sent the crowd into pandemonium.
“The lack of discipline that we have, especially offensively,” Calipari said. “Guys breaking off stuff, doing their own thing. We’re up 10, call stuff and they just do—you can’t play that way in a big-time game. We had some guys that the game was a little bit above them. They couldn’t come up with rebounds and balls, which I thought they would. But you gotta give South Carolina credit. They never stopped. I thought we had them when it was 14 and let’s get this to 20 and they didn’t stop.”
Minaya added two more baskets between a drive by A.J. Lawson and South Carolina was ahead 76-71 with 1:46 to go. Kentucky tied it a final time on Quickly’s jumper after Lawson missed two foul shots with a chance to seal the game.
It was impossible to imagine South Carolina winning after an awful first half where it missed its first 10 shots and was shooting less than 25% from the field but the Gamecocks made their shots in the second and made the most of 20 offensive rebounds.
“They outrebounded us,” UK forward Nate Sestina said. “It started with me not hitting guys on the offensive end. They outhustled us. Coach (Tony) Barbee said at the beginning of the game the more physical team’s going to win. They were more physical than us and that was the outcome.”
It was the Wildcats’ first loss in SEC action this season. They’ll try to letting it slip to two in a row with a trip to Arkansas on Saturday.
Kentucky has shown the ability to bounce back of late, playing its best basketball of the season after back-to-back losses in Las Vegas before Christmas.
“This is just another opportunity for us to kind of take it, mourn for 24 hours – Coach always says – and then get back after it,” Sestina said. “Tomorrow’s a new day. Today’s in the past already. Game’s over. Can’t do anything about it now. The outcome is what it is and for us to move forward we kind of have to forget about it, get back tomorrow, watch film, see what we need to do to get better and continue to move forward.”
THE BIG PICTURE
Kentucky: The Wildcats had four players in double figures and seemed to have the game in control. But they missed eight of their final 10 shots.
South Carolina: The Gamecocks entered this one on a three-game losing streak that included a dreadful home defeat to Stetson. But on the plus side, they’ve now beaten a pair of top-10 teams. They topped Virginia on Dec. 22.
UP NEXT
Kentucky plays at Arkansas on Saturday.
South Carolina travels to Texas A&M on Saturday.
