Lamont Paris addresses struggles containing Jermaine Couisnard

Lamont Paris knew South Carolina was going to have its hands full with Jermaine Cousinard and the Gamecocks couldn’t do enough in a first round loss to Oregon.

Cousinard finished the game with 40 points, four rebounds and six assists. He absolutely dominated in the 87-73 win over the Gamecocks.

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Paris is going to look at that performance and really ask himself what could’ve been done better.

“I mean, there was a lot,” Paris said. “I mean, I wish we had — I wish we had found a way to slow him down better. But he went 5 for 9 from three, once in transition as he’s dribbling up right in front of us, and 7 for 7 from the free throw line. And he was aggressive, going to the basket. And I think a few of those, I mean he hit a floater against the zone that we fouled him on. He makes tough shots. He doesn’t average 40, but he makes tough shots. 

“And I think it was set off by the fact that he went five for nine from the three-point line. I thought that was — that really ends up making that scoring effort into that scoring effort if you go — it’s hard to get there on twos, but when you go 7 for 7 from the free throw line and 5 for 9 from the three-point line, then something like that comes into it.”

Simply put, Paris noted there were a few things that could be done. Heck, South Carolina tried them.

Cousinard just went off and had one of those nights to help Oregon advance and send the Gamecocks packing.

“We looked at a couple things,” Paris said. “We went zone for a couple of possessions just to try to slow down the ball screen a little bit. And then they got an And 1 off of a floater on that. And then out of our double team, they reversed it out of our double team, split the double team and kicked one more for a three. 

“So then I just — our energy wasn’t quite as good in that so we ended up staying man to man, but he was aggressive and he had a good game. He had a good game. We’re normally really good defensively. He had a good game.”