It wasn’t a high scoring game, but the Oklahoma Sooners did just enough to defeat South Carolina, 26-7, on Saturday in Columbia, S.C.

The Sooners (6-1, 2-1 Southeastern Conference) bounced back from their loss to Texas last week, and played solid, mistake-free offense. OU head coach Mike Venables was proud of the way his team didn’t let the negative comments about last week’s game affect his team.

“Whenever anybody questioned our team from a week ago, our guys had the ability to block it out,” Venables said after the game.

The Sooners scored first with an 18-yard touchdown run by Tory Blaylock in the first quarter.

OU extended the lead to 14-0 when Xavier Robinson battled his way into the end zone from 10 yards out, with 9:21 left in the second quarter.

South Carolina (3-4, 1-4 SEC) got on the scoreboard with a two-yard touchdown pass from LaNorris Sellers to Nyck Harbor with 1:43 remaining before halftime.

Oklahoma led 14-7 at halftime.

Midway through the third quarter, Tate Sandell kicked a 55-yard field goal, matching his career longest, to put OU ahead 17-7. Before the end of the quarter, Mateer connected with Isaiah Sategna III on a 20-yard touchdown pass.

The Sooners closed out the scoring with a safety in the fourth quarter to win the game 26-7.

“I say to our players all the time: this game will punish you,” Venables said. “From the smallest incremental you know, mistakes. At the end of the day, when you look back, it’s going to be a sum of all those mistakes that can really expose you. We were on the right side of it today, which was a tone setter.”

Mateer threw for 150 yards and a touchdown, completing 18-of-26 passes. Blaylock ran for 101 yards and a touchdown. Sategna caught seven passes for 73 yards and a score.

Mateer credited the Sooners offensive line for giving him the ability to get offense going in this game.

“Credit to the whole line,” Mateer said.          “We really stressed this week in practice, taking care up front to win this game. We wanted to come out and be able to run the ball. We wanted to start fast and score early. We were able to do that, which was awesome.”

The Oklahoma defense sacked Gamecocks quarterback Sellers six times and had two interceptions.

Sellers completed 17-of-25 passes for 124 yards and one touchdown. South Carolina head coach Shane Beamer talked about his quarterback’s performance.

“We got to continue to be able to help him, to continue to run the ball,” Beamer said. “He made some nice runs and did a nice job throwing the ball. I’m sure he’ll be the first to tell you that he missed some, but I thought he gave us an opportunity.”

Oklahoma will face No. 5 Ole Miss on Saturday at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium. Kickoff is set for 11:00 a.m. on ABC.