COLUMBIA, S.C. – The No. 3 Clemson football team earned the Palmetto Bowl trophy for the fourth consecutive year with a 34-10 defeat of the No. 24 South Carolina Gamecocks at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday. With the win, Clemson improved to 11-1 on the year, while South Carolina fell to 8-4. The victory was the 100th of head coach Dabo Swinney’s career.

Offensively, the Tigers were sparked by Hunter Renfrow, who totaled 75 yards and two touchdowns on four catches, one of which was a career-long 61-yard scoring reception. Including Renfrow, Kelly Bryant connected with 11 different receivers, amassing 272 yards and two touchdowns on 23 completions. The Clemson defense held the Gamecocks to just 3.2 yards per play and 99 total yards in the first half, and both Ryan Carter and Trayvon Mullen hauled in interceptions during the game.

After a 43-yard Will Spiers punt set up a South Carolina drive at its own one-yard line midway through the first quarter, Carter intercepted a Jake Bentley pass and ran it 12 yards for a touchdown that gave the Tigers a 7-0 lead. The Carter pick six proved to be the only scoring of the first quarter. 

Clemson doubled its lead with just over eight minutes remaining in the first half on a one-yard touchdown run by Tavien Feaster, capping a drive that was highlighted by a 24-yard reception for Tee Higgins on a third down play. Higgins was also instrumental on third down a few Tiger drives later, hauling in a 40-yard pass from Bryant that brought the Tigers inside the 10-yard line and set up a four-yard touchdown reception by Renfrow. After the two scores, Clemson took a 20-0 advantage into the break. 

Renfrow found the endzone for the second time on the first play of the second half, a 61-yard scoring pass from Bryant. A five-yard touchdown run by Travis Etienne with just under three minutes left in the third quarter put the Tigers up 34-0 heading into the final 15 minutes. 

Parker White hit a 40-yard field goal to put the Gamecocks on the board early in the fourth quarter, and South Carolina increased their point total to 10 when Bentley connected with Bryan Edwards for a 38-yard scoring pass with just under three minutes remaining in the game.

Clemson will face Coastal Division winner Miami in the ACC Championship game in Charlotte, N.C. next Saturday. Kickoff is slated for 8 p.m. at Bank of America Stadium.

BOX SCORE

TEAM NOTES

• Clemson is now 42-3 dating to the 2014 season. 
• Clemson is 15-1 at night over the last two seasons, with eight of the wins coming against teams ranked in the top 25 of either the AP, USA Today or College Football Playoff polls.
• Clemson’s senior class is now 49-6 over its four years. Tonight’s win tied the Clemson and ACC record for wins in a four-year period. The 2016 senior class was 49-7. Clemson’s senior class is now tied for sixth in FBS history in wins, and next week, the program can become the first 50 win class in ACC history.
• Clemson is now 14-1 in true road games over the last two years.
• Tonight was Clemson’s 10th straight win over a top 25 team (AP, USA Today, or College Football Playoff), an ACC record. Clemson and Florida State both had nine-game streaks entering tonight.
• Tonight was Clemson’s fourth road win over a top 25 team this year, marking the first Clemson team to amass that many top 25 road wins in a single season.
• This was Clemson’s first win over a South Carolina team that entered the game with at least eight wins since 1988. South Carolina and Clemson were both 8-2 going into that game at Clemson, and the Tigers won 29-10. 
• Clemson had never beaten a South Carolina team in Columbia that entered the game with at least eight wins until tonight. 
• Tonight was Clemson’s 87th victory of the decade. That tied the Clemson record for wins in a decade. Clemson had an 87-25-4 record in the 1980s. The Tigers are now 87-21 in the 2010s.
• This was Clemson’s fourth straight win over South Carolina. This is the first Clemson senior class with a perfect record against South Carolina since the seniors of 2005.
• Clemson is now 51-31-3 against South Carolina in Columbia, including 32-20-2 in William-Brice Stadium.
• With Ryan Carter’s interception return for a score in the first quarter, Clemson now has four defensive touchdowns this year. It is the most in one season since 2013. The record for defensive touchdowns in a season is five in 1990.

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

• Dabo Swinney picked up his 100th career victory tonight. He has a record of 100-29. He is just the fourth coach in FBS history to win 100 games within his first 10 years as a head coach.  The others are Bob Stoops (109), Chris Petersen (107), and Urban Meyer (104).
• Swinney became just the fourth ACC coach to record 100 wins. The others to do it are Bobby Bowden (173), George Welsh (136), and Frank Beamer (113).
• Ryan Carter had a 12-yard interception return for a touchdown in the first quarter. It was Carter’s second interception of the year, but his first career touchdown.
• It was the shortest interception return for a touchdown in Clemson history. The previous shortest was a 15-yard return for a score by defensive lineman Carlos Watkins against Appalachian State in 2015.
• Carter’s pick six was the first interception return for a score by a Tiger against South Carolina since 2006 when Jock McKissick went 82 yards for a touchdown at Clemson. It had been 20 years since a Clemson player returned an interception for a score in Columbia. Antwan Edwards had a 42-yard interception return for a score at South Carolina in 1997.
• Deon Cain has now caught a pass in 35 consecutive games, the ninth-longest active streak in the nation and just three games short of the school record of 38 set by Artavis Scott (2014-16).
• After not scoring a touchdown in the first 10 games of the season, Hunter Renfrow now has three in the last two games. His 61-yard touchdown reception on the first play of the third quarter was the longest of his career. Renfrow now has 14 career touchdown receptions, two at home and 12 away from home.
• Tonight was the third time Renfrow has had two touchdown receptions in a game, including each of the last two National Championship games against Alabama and tonight against South Carolina.
• Kelly Bryant set the Clemson record for wins by a starting quarterback in his first season. Tonight was his 11th. Chris Morocco (1989) and Tajh Boyd (2011) had the previous record with 10.
• Bryant threw an interception on his last pass of the night, ending a streak of 122 consecutive passes without an interception.
• Tee Higgins had three catches for 84 yards tonight and now has nine catches for 262 yards in the last two games.