South Carolina edges Clemson ... in spring game attendance

The competition between South Carolina and Clemson continues — even in spring game attendance.

The Tigers announced a crowd of 50,000 for Saturday’s Orange and White Game. A few hours later, the South Carolina Twitter account posted that more than 51,000 were on hand at Williams-Brice Stadium on Saturday night for the Garnet & Black Spring Game.

The Gamecocks are coming off a 31-30 win over Clemson in the annual meeting between the two Palmetto State schools. It was the Gamecocks’ first win against the Tigers since 2013, as well as the first time in school history they’ve won back-to-back games against opponents ranked in the Associated Press Top 10.

Saturday was the second-straight year USC has hosted a night spring game.

South Carolina announced a crowd of 20,671 for last year’s game, although that number was debated by coach Shane Beamer after the game.

“One billion percent,” he said. “I don’t know who said 20,000. There were more than 20,000 in there, I can promise you that.”