BY DAVE SKRETTA
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Ahmad Hardy bounced his way for 138 yards rushing and a touchdown, Beau Pribula led No. 23 Missouri downfield for a go-ahead score in the fourth quarter and the Tigers beat South Carolina 29-20 on Saturday night.
Pribula threw for 171 yards with a touchdown pass, and Jamal Roberts had a nifty touchdown jaunt of his own with 9:32 left to give the Tigers (4-0, 1-0 SEC) the lead, ultimately helping them to their 14th consecutive home win.
“That was a heck of a battle,” Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz said. “You could tell they were ticked off about last week’s performance and came in and fought. Really proud of our team for not really flinching. … We just kept hammering away.”
LaNorris Sellers had 302 yards passing and two touchdowns for the Gamecocks (2-2, 0-2), but their star quarterback missed a couple of open receivers in the fourth quarter when the game was on the line. South Carolina twice went three-and-out down the stretch, giving the powerful Missouri ground game the chance to close out the win.
The Tigers finished with 285 yards rushing. South Carolina had minus-9 on the ground.
“When you’re in the red zone like we were and go backwards, it’s going to be hard to win,” South Carolina coach Shane Beamer said. “When you have opportunities to make plays and we don’t get it done, it’s going to be hard to win. And having said all that, we had the lead going into the fourth quarter and couldn’t finish.”
Missouri rolled into the game amid a perfect start that included a win over rival Kansas, while the Gamecocks limped into town following a lopsided loss to Vanderbilt in which Sellers missed the second half after a hard blow to the head.
There were questions about whether he would play early in the week. By game time, Sellers was off the injury report entirely.
South Carolina needed his magic. The Tigers struck first with a 99-yard drive — their third full-field march of the season — before Sellers answered with a 49-yard touchdown throw to Vandrevius Jacobs to give the Gamecocks a 7-6 lead.
Sellers hit Brian Rowe Jr. with his second touchdown throw later in the half, and South Carolina led 14-12 at the break.
Hardy carried the Tigers in the second half, bouncing off defenders like a pinball. The highlight may have been his TD run, when it looked as if he was stood up at the line of scrimmage, spun off the pile and scored to give Missouri an 18-16 lead.
“I didn’t even know I was off the ground until I started spinning and my legs started kicking,” Hardy said. “I just kept running.”
It always felt as if the game was destined to be decided in the fourth quarter, though, just like last November, when Sellers capped a 353-yard, five-touchdown performance by rallying the Gamecocks for a 34-30 win in the Palmetto State.
This time, South Carolina had regained the lead when Pribula led the Tigers downfield in the fourth quarter. And after Hardy had checked out for a breather, Roberts did his best impersonation of him, bouncing off tackles on a 16-yard sprint to the pylon for a touchdown; Pribula added the 2-point conversion to give Missouri a 26-20 lead with 9:36 to go.
Then it was the Tigers defense that stepped up, forcing South Carolina into a pair of three-and-outs before Robert Meyer kicked a clinching 40-yard field goal with 1:34 left on the clock.
“We don’t look down the road. We don’t look behind us. It’s one week at a time,” Pribula said. “We did a good job of focusing on this week, focusing on them. We’ll enjoy this tonight and then focus on UMass.”
The Takeaway
South Carolina was penalized 12 times for 88 yards. One of them was a 15-yarder as the Tigers were trying to run out the clock.
Missouri’s defense spent the game in the South Carolina backfield, piling up eight tackles-for-loss. That included five sacks.
Up next
South Carolina plays Kentucky next Saturday.
Missouri plays UMass the same day.
