Kellen Mond continued to find Jace Sternberger, and South Carolina couldn’t do much about it. Then, much like last week, the Gamecocks came alive in the second half, but this time it wasn’t quite enough.

Texas A&M withstood South Carolina’s third-quarter rally and Seth Small nailed his fourth field goal of the day to put the Aggies back on top in a 26-23 road victory over the Gamecocks.

Texas A&M turned on the jets in the second quarter as Mond was 8-for-11 for 171 yards, including 109 to Sternberger. Sternberger, who leads the country in touchdowns by a tight end, caught his sixth this season in the second quarter.

Sternberger’s biggest play was a 53-yard reception in the first half when he carried South Carolina S Steven Montac for about 25 yards.

For the Gamecocks, if it wasn’t the boos from the crowd directed toward QB Jake Bentley, it was the receivers dropping catchable passes. Bentley had well-thrown balls dropped by Deebo Samuel, Bryan Edwards and Shi Smith in the first half alone. The drops contributed to South Carolina registering just 19 yards in the second quarter.

The tide turned with about three minutes left in the third quarter when, after South Carolina’s first touchdown, the defense forced a punt.

Then South Carolina, with the home crowd coming alive, kept the momentum flowing when Bentley connected on a flea-flicker with Chavis Dawkins for a 33-yard TD catch.

South Carolina got early pressure on Mond, particularly by Aaron Sterling, but the Aggies adjusted away from it.

Bentley got off to a slow start with a couple of high passes, and frustration grew in Williams-Brice Stadium. Bentley started 2-for-4 for 27 yards, then had six straight incompletions and moved to 4-of-12 for 35 yards, with an interception in the corner of the end zone to Charles Oliver. That was a surprising development because it was just Texas A&M’s third forced turnover of the year. They entered the game last in the SEC in that category, and doubled their production for the season by halftime.

The Aggies played most of the game without Debione Renfro, who was ejected for targeting in first quarter.

It went from bad to worse for the Gamecocks when, after a long gain on a punt return by Edwards, he struggled for more yardage and the ball popped loose by P Braden Mann for a fumble.

Along with Sternberger, Quartney Davis had a big day and passed 100 yards receiving by early in the second half. It was the first time two A&M players had at least 100 receiving yards in the same game this season.

Texas A&M controlled the time of possession and more than doubled the Gamecocks with more than 40 minutes.

The Aggies forced a South Carolina punt late before they used a long drive that drained the clock, and timeouts from the Gamecocks. The field goal came after an 11-play drive where they drained six minutes off the clock. Then after a five-play South Carolina drive stalled, Texas A&M kept the ball for more than five minutes.

The Gamecocks tacked on a late score when Bentley hit Samuel for a 6-yard touchdown with 48 seconds remaining, a play set up when A&M’s Donovan Wilson was ejected for targeting.