Jermaine Cousinard scored 19 points and A.J. Lawson added 18 as South Carolina rolled to a 74-54 win over Texas A&M on Saturday afternoon in Columbia, S.C.
The Gamecocks (14-9, 6-4 SEC) won their fourth straight conference home game by turning 20 A&M turnovers into 21 points and dominating in the paint, outscoring the Aggies 29-14 near the basket.
Texas A&M (11-11, 5-5) shot 27.3 percent, its second-worst rate of the season and fifth straight game where it failed to top 40 percent from the field. The Aggies made only 8 of 28 2-point shots compared to 7 of 27 from beyond the arc.
The Gamecocks led by 18 at the half and built the lead to 30 by the first TV timeout of the second half thanks to a pair of 3-pointers by Lawson and a triple from Cousinard, who has 62 points in his last three games including a career-high 28 in a loss Wednesday at Ole Miss.
A five-minute scoring drought coupled with a 9-0 Texas A&M run pulled the Aggies within 61-39 with 9:46 remaining but they couldn't get closer than that until the final minute.
Lawson was 4 of 7 from 3-point range as South Carolina made eight treys. The Gamecocks were 16 of 30 from deep in an 81-67 win at A&M on Jan. 18.
A&M scored the game's first nine points but managed only five over the final 8:45 of the first half. South Carolina went into halftime on a 24-5 run, with Cousinard hitting a running 3-pointer at the buzzer off of the Aggies' 11th turnover to make it 41-23 at the break.
Quenton Jackson had 16 and Wendell Mitchell added 12 for the Aggies, who came in allowing an SEC-low 63.6 points per game in league play. Texas A&M fell to 0-8 this season when allowing 65 or more points.
--Field Level Media
Texas A&M | South Carolina | |
Quenton Jackson 16 | Scoring | Jermaine Couisnard 19 |
Savion Flagg 1 | Assists | Maik Kotsar 4 |
Emanuel Miller 8 | Rebounds | A.J. Lawson 5 |
Jay Jay Chandler 6 | Free Throws Made | Jermaine Couisnard 7 |
Jay Jay Chandler 2 | Steals | Maik Kotsar 4 |
Jonathan Aku 3 | Blocks | Alanzo Frink 3 |
Team | Points | FG% | 3PM-3PA | FTM-FTA | Assists | Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Turnovers |
Texas A&M | 54 | 27.3 | 7-27 | 17-23 | 5 | 35 | 6 | 7 | 20 |
South Carolina | 74 | 39.0 | 8-23 | 20-27 | 13 | 32 | 8 | 13 | 14 |