By MONTE DUTTON

COLUMBIA – A disastrous ending to the first half opened the floodgates in South Carolina’s 47-21 victory on Saturday night at Williams-Brice Stadium.

The Gamecocks’ well-traveled senior quarterback, Spencer Rattler, didn’t allow any opportunity for the Paladins to reverse that flow.

The epitaph read: Too much talent. Too much depth. Too much garnet. Too much black.

Rattler, who had been sacked nine times in South Carolina’s opening-game loss to North Carolina, got off scot-free this time, though the Furman rushers sometimes got close enough to hear his rattle. He completed 25/27 passes for 345 yards and three touchdowns.

Almost exactly a year (364 days) after Clemson defeated the Paladins, 35-12, the Tyler Huff-led offense compiled a respectable 323 yards. The difference was that Furman outgained the Tigers the previous year (384-376) and allowed Carolina 571.

For all that, Furman once led, 14-7. For that matter, Charleston Southern once led by that score at Clemson earlier in the afternoon and fell, 66-17.

Carolina (1-1) never took the lead until there were 43 seconds remaining in the first half on Rattler’s 37-yard pass to former (and later in the game) quarterback Luke Doty. After a touchback on the kickoff, Huff completed an eight-yard pass to Joshua Harris. Then Huff through incomplete in the direction of Ben Ferguson. Dominic Roberto got only an official one of the needed two yards, and Ryan Leavy punted 41 yards to the USC 25.

In 23 seconds, Rattler hit Xavier Legette for 53 yards to the Furman 22, spiked the ball, got an interference call on Travis Blackshear and hit O’Mega Blake for the touchdown from seven yards away. Three plays, 75 yards, 20 seconds and disaster. South Carolina led, 27-14, at the half.

Furman (1-1) played hard and evinced its trademark composure. Composure works well when it isn’t timed and tested.

The Paladins lost honorably, but moral victories are myths, and a moral victory wasn’t why Clay Hendrix brought his squad to play the Gamecocks.

“You have those tsunamis that come up to hit you from time to time,” Hendrix said. “I still thought we were going to come out in the third quarter and get back in it.”

The game opened like a charm as the Furman defense bent but ultimately stopped the first Gamecock drive and broke on top with a Roberto plunge on fourth-and-one. Axel Lepvreau’s kick made it 7-0.

It was short-lived. Rattler led South Carolina swiftly downfield to tie it with 4:59 remaining in the first quarter on Dakereon Joyner’s three-yard rush.

Naturally, Furman did not go gently into that good Williams-Brice night, responding with another smooth drive. Huff fed Luke Shiflett in the left flat on third down from the two.

Again, Carolina responded in kind, and Rattler snuck it from a yard out to tie the score, 14-14, after Mitch Jeter’s point after. The first half still had 8:26 to go, and the Gamecocks made the best of the final 43 seconds by scoring two touchdowns.

In the third quarter Furman advanced into USC territory on its opening drive, but it stalled when Huff was sacked twice in a span of four plays.

A 42-yard Rattler touchdown pass to Xavier Legette signaled the rout. It was 34-14 with 8:36 remaining in the third quarter, and the Gamecocks had ample cause for crowing.

Doty came in at quarterback after already scoring as a receiver. Then Carolina crossed into the 40s with a 50-yard bomb from LaNorris Sellers to Tyshawn Russell. The final score was a 16-yard connection from Sellers to Nyck Harbor. In the Gamecocks’ 26-point run, three of the four scores were long passes.

By the time the fourth quarter commenced, Furman’s defense was worn out and demoralized, and the Gamecocks were still considerably weaponized. South Carolina, itself embarrassed in week one, could ill afford to fool around with the Paladins.

Carson Jones produced a respectability-saving, 16-yard touchdown pass to freshman Brock Chappell with 4:37 remaining.

Joshua Harris’s performance deserves mention. The junior from Newnan, Ga., caught six passes for 73 yards and threw one of 55 yards to Kyndel Dean in the first quarter, setting up the Paladins’ first score.

Huff completed 14/24 passes for 129 yards and a touchdown. He was intercepted once. Carson Jones hit 5/9 for 63 and a score.

South Carolina lost a fumble, recovered by Luke McLaughlin. Each team had one turnover.

“To win, you’ve got to win a lot of one-on-one matches,” Hendrix said. “We won some, but not enough.”

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