SportsDirect Inc. staff
Sep 17, 2011

South Carolina's Marcus Lattimore set a career-high for rushing yards and matched a school record with three rushing touchdowns, as the No. 11 Gamecocks survived another upset scare and held off Navy, 24-21, to win their home opener for the fifth consecutive season.

Navy spoiled South Carolina's perfect season in 1984, shocking the then-No. 2 Gamecocks in Annapolis, Md., and the Midshipmen nearly did it again. They took a 21-17 lead into the fourth quarter and had the ball with a chance to win the game until Antonio Allen's interception with 1:08 left.

Lattimore's 246 rushing yards are the fourth-most in school history and the most since Brandon Bennett had a school-record 278 yards against East Tennessee State in 1991. It was Lattimore's seventh 100-yard game in 16 career games.

South Carolina is 3-0 for the third time in seven seasons under coach Steve Spurrier, who improved to 43-0 against schools outside the BCS automatic qualifying conferences, including a 17-0 mark against non-BCS schools since taking over at South Carolina.

Navy (2-1) has not beaten a ranked opponent since upsetting Notre Dame in 2009.

The Gamecocks lead the all-time series 5-3 and have won five of six meetings in Columbia, S.C.