Jermaine Couisnard spent the first three seasons of his college career at South Carolina.
On Thursday, he ended the Gamecocks' season.
Couisnard racked up a career-high 40 points to power No. 11 Oregon to an 87-73 upset of No. 6 South Carolina in the first round of the men's NCAA Tournament at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
The senior guard shot 14-for-22 from the field, 5-for-9 from 3 and 7-for-7 from the free throw line, adding six assists and four rebounds. It marked the highest-scoring individual performance in March Madness since Carsen Edwards tallied 42 points for Purdue in 2019.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
Couisnard, who's in his second season at Oregon, entered the Big Dance averaging around 15 points per contest. But, with his grandmother in the crowd for the first time this season, Couisnard nearly tripled his average scoring output.
"This is my grandma's first game here this season," Couisnard told the TNT broadcast postgame. "I knew I had to make a sacrifice for her. Just one day, that's all I dreamed of for her to come to one of my games."
NCAAB
The Ducks, who also got a 23-point outing from center N'Faly Dante, have now won five straight games. They entered the Pac-12 Tournament as the No. 4 seed and took down top-seeded Arizona en route to a conference tournament championship.
Couisnard and Co. will look to keep things rolling in the Midwest region when they face No. 3 Creighton in a second-round battle on Saturday. Creighton won its opening game over No. 14 Akron 77-60 on Thursday.
