LaNorris Sellers plays through ankle injury to lead South Carolina past Texas A&M

LaNorris Sellers was already limping when he kept the ball on an option and ran 41 yards for the touchdown that sealed the South Carolina Gamecocks' 17-9 win over the Texas A&M Aggies on Saturday. Teammates and staff had to help him to the bench after he crossed the goal line.

Sellers had spent the end of the first half in the locker room. Texas A&M defensive end Sam M'Pemba landed on his left ankle on a strip-sack late in the second quarter, and Sellers was helped to the medical tent and then off the field for X-rays. Shane Beamer said at halftime that the team was concerned, then said the X-rays had come back negative. Sellers was on the field for South Carolina's first possession of the third quarter.

"I knew I wanted to be out there and didn't want to sit the rest of the second half knowing we had a chance to win the game, It's just fighting through the pain, honestly." Sellers said afterward.

He played the second half with little of the mobility that defines his game, and South Carolina's offense stalled for most of it. Texas A&M took a 9-7 lead on a third-quarter field goal before Malik Orsan's 43-yard kick put the Gamecocks back in front 10-9 with 8:14 to play. Sellers finished 20-of-31 for 251 yards and a touchdown, most of it on a bad ankle.

Why didn't Sellers go down short of the goal line?

South Carolina led 10-9 and needed to burn the final 87 seconds when Sellers found a lane on the option. A slide short of the end zone might have let the Gamecocks run out the clock, while the touchdown put them up eight and handed Texas A&M the ball back with a chance to tie. Sellers said the ankle made the decision for him. "I really couldn't stop (because my ankle) started hurting," Sellers said .

The defense made the score hold, and the win was South Carolina's fourth straight after a 2-3 start.

"I don't ever want to lose three games, but because of the adversity that we dealt with early in the season, maybe it helped us to find a way to win tonight," Beamer said . The Gamecocks are 6-3 and bowl eligible, with a trip to the Arkansas Razorbacks on Nov. 14.

It was a long way from the second quarter, when Sellers walked to the locker room without his cleat in the same week he collected two national player of the week awards. Former Missouri and NFL quarterback Chase Daniel was among those who reacted on X. "What a GUTSY performance by Sellers! Cockvember is here to stay!" Daniel wrote .