ATHENS, Ga. (AP) -- South Carolina is still 0-for-Lou.

Quincy Carter threw a 47-yard touchdown pass to Terrence Edwards, Jasper Sanks rushed for a career-high 130 yards and Kendrell Bell led a swarming defense as No. 12 Georgia defeated Lou Holtz and South Carolina 24-9 on Saturday night.

	Lou Holtz said he has to "coach harder" after his Gamecocks lost to Georgia on Saturday.

The Gamecocks (0-2, 0-1 Southeastern Conference) were shut out in Holtz's debut and went nearly three quarters against Georgia (2-0, 1-0) without scoring.

Courtney Leavitt finally erased the string of zeros with a 28-yard field goal with 2:58 left in the third period. The Gamecocks scored their first touchdown on Phil Petty's 8-yard pass to Carlos Spikes with just over three minutes remaining.

"Nobody wants to lose," Holtz said. "We came down here to win. I've got to coach harder."

Georgia built a 14-0 lead at halftime but struggled to put the Gamecocks away. The Bulldogs had 431 yards but were plagued by a fumble in South Carolina territory and at least a dozen dropped passes.

"If we played them tomorrow, it might be a different story," Holtz said. "I doubt it, but you'd like to think it."

Despite the drops, Carter went 21-of-38 for 251 yards and also ran seven times for 33 yards.

"There's not many guys playing on Sundays (in the NFL) who make the decisions he does," coach Jim Donnan said of his sophomore quarterback. "We take him for granted around here. He probably should have been 32-of-38. He's a human highlight film."

Charles Grant, perhaps the most heralded freshman at Georgia since Herschel Walker, scored his first career touchdown early in the second period on a 1-yard run to give the Bulldogs a 7-0 lead.

Sanks, a sophomore who faced similar expectations when he was originally signed by the Bulldogs in 1997, scored Georgia's final TD on a 3-yard run to cap his best college performance. He had to take on most of the running load when Robert Arnaud suffered a sprained knee early in the second quarter.

"This is very rewarding," said Sanks, who had 67 yards in the fourth quarter after sitting out most of the previous period because of cramping. "I just wanted to prove to people that I could still play this game."

Georgia's other TD came on third-and-4 from the South Carolina 47. Edwards got behind safeties Sheldon Brown and Willie Offord and hauled in a perfectly thrown pass by Carter down the middle of the field.

"They put it on my chest that I'm the big-play guy," said Edwards, the freshman younger brother of former Georgia running back Robert Edwards. "I like the role."

He made a spectacular debut for the Bulldogs the previous week, catching 10 passes for 196 yards and two long touchdowns in a 38-7 victory over Utah State. Against the Gamecocks, he had seven receptions for 90 yards but dropped several passes.

"I told Terrence there's not a lot of difference between the outhouse and penthouse," Donnan said.

Bell, starting in place of injured Will Witherspoon at middle linebacker, intercepted a deflected pass on South Carolina's first possession. In the third period, the junior blocked a punt by Leavitt.

Bell, tackling anything in sight, even knocked down one of his players on a punt return.

"The whole thing was hustle," he said. "Even if you're doing bad, pathetic, you can still hustle. That's what I was doing on all three plays, hustling."

Petty's 38-yard pass to Kerry Hood led to Leavitt's field goal, bringing a sigh of relief to Holtz's face.

The Gamecocks suffered five turnovers in their opener -- a 10-0 loss to North Carolina State -- but that could be largely blamed on monsoon-like playing conditions. There was no excuse for Petty's two interceptions on a warm, clear night at Sanford Stadium.

"We could play much better," Holtz said. "We've got to play much better."

The Gamecocks managed 218 yards -- just 46 on the ground. Petty was sacked five times and Georgia stopped the Gamecocks 15 times behind the line of scrimmage.

"It wasn't very easy out there at times," Petty said.

A series in the third quarter demonstrated South Carolina's offensive futility. After picking up a first down on Perry's 21-yard pass to Hood, the Gamecocks lost 22 yards on their next three plays.

Freshman Derek Watson was caught nine yards deep in the backfield by Tony Gilbert on an attempted option play, then Petty was sacked twice in a row, losing seven yards on a hit by Orantes Grant and six more when he was tripped up by Richard Seymour.

Watson, who rushed for 118 yards in his first game, managed only 29 yards against the Bulldogs.