Field Level Media
Nov 29, 2020
Jermaine Couisnard scored 20 points and South Carolina used a decisive late-game run to roll past Tulsa 69-58 on Sunday afternoon in the consolation final of the CBE Hall of Fame Classic in Kansas City, Mo.
The game was tied 51-51 midway through the second half before the Gamecocks rolled to a 64-51 lead on the strength of a 13-0 run. Tulsa missed 14 straight shots, went nine and a half minutes without scoring and had five turnovers in the pivotal stretch.
AJ Lawson added 17 points for the Gamecocks (1-1), with Justin Minaya adding 11 points and taking nine rebounds.
Brandon Rachal led the Golden Hurricane with 14 points in the loss. Keyshawn Embery-Simpson and Elijah Joiner added 11 points each and Joiner led Tulsa with seven rebounds. The Golden Hurricane fell to 0-2 on the season.
The game was statistically even except for the shooting, where the Gamecocks earned a 48 percent to 40 percent edge over Tulsa.
Tulsa scored the game's first nine points, keeping the Gamecocks off the scoreboard until the 17:16 mark of the first half. South Carolina responded with a 14-4 run over the next four and a half minutes to run past the Golden Hurricane and into the lead.
The rest of the half went back-and-forth before a Trae Hannibal bucket with 1:26 to play granted South Carolina a 34-33 advantage at the break.
Couisnard led all scorers with 12 points over the first 20 minutes, while Embery-Simpson paced the Golden Hurricane with 11 points in the first half.
Tulsa trailed by six points four minutes into the second half but reassumed the lead, at 51-49, with an 8-0 run capped by a pair of free throws by Rachal with 10:47 to play. The Gamecocks responded with two free throws from Lawson and a bucket by Couisnard to go up by two, and South Carolina never looked back.
--Field Level Media