Football Claims Mayor's Cup with 34-30 Win over No. 24 Missouri

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — LaNorris Sellers threw a 15-yard touchdown pass to Raheim Sanders with 15 seconds left and No. 23 South Carolina beat No. 24 Missouri 34-30 on Saturday night for its third straight victory over a ranked opponent.

Sellers had career highs of five TD passes and 353 yards, completing 21 of 30 attempts.

The Gamecocks (7-3, 5-3) have won four straight Southeastern Conference games for the first time since Steve Spurrier was coach in 2012. But it’s now one of Spurrier’s hires with the Gamecocks in Shane Beamer who has South Carolina as the hottest team in the powerhouse conference.

This one looked as if it would be another runaway the past three wins over Oklahoma (35-9), Texas A&M (44-10) and Vanderbilt (28-7) when Sellers threw three first-half touchdown passes for a 21-6 lead.

But the Tigers (7-3, 3-3) twice battled back to take the lead in the fourth quarter, the final time on Brady Cook’s 37-yard TD pass to Luther Burden III with 1:10 to go for a 30-27 lead.

Sellers, though, was far from done. He hit on passes of 10 and 49 yards to bring the Gamecocks to the Missouri 21. After Sellers’ 7 yard run, he flipped the ball to Sanders who bulled his way across the goal line to send the crowd at Williams-Brice Stadium into a frenzy.

Missouri’s last chance ended with Cook was picked off by Jalon Kilgore with 5 seconds left as the Gamecocks beat three consecutive ranked teams for the first time in program history.

Missouri’s Nate Noel ran for 150 yards and a go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter, but it didn’t hold up. .

South Carolina may be the hottest team in the SEC at the moment and showed that early against Missouri.