This close

The Gamecocks played well enough to advance to the finals of the Virginia Tech 7s Invitational Tournament Saturday but fell to the host Hokies 21-20 in a thrilling final.

In the early-morning games South Carolina ran past Delaware 69-0 and Virginia 22-0, but lost to Queens, a varsity program, 19-12 to finish second in their pool. As such, the Gamecocks were matched against UNC-Wilmington, the surprise team of the tournament, who won the other pool with a win over Virginia Tech.

South Carolina managed to corral Wilmington’s top scorers in the semi-final and pushed past the Seahawks 31-5. Meanwhile, the Hokies defeated Queens in the other semi-final by a large margin.

The Gamecocks led the Hokies at halftime but handling errors deep in their end led to two Virginia Tech trys early in the second half. The Gamecocks scored a late try before time ran out on the rally.

The USC B team also put together a solid day, defeating Virginia A 31-0 and dropping contests to Virgina Tech B (7-22), UNC-Wilmington (31-5) and Virginia Tech B (17-7). The Gamecock B-side closes the spring season with a 3-5 record.  The Gamecock A-side is 13-5.

With three A-side starters out of the line-up for the past three weeks, USC will take the next two weeks to get healthy before the all-important SCRC Tournament April 6 in Knoxville.