Game-changer? Yes. Play of the year? Damani Staley’s pick-six could prove to be that

South Carolina desperately needed something — anything — to go right in the first half Saturday against East Carolina.

Up by 14 points with just over one minute before halftime, the Pirates again charged into Gamecocks territory. On third-and-10 from the USC 37-yard line, East Carolina quarterback Holton Ahlers faced pressure from South Carolina edge defender Aaron Sterling. Ahlers quickly flung the football, intended for ECU running back Rahjai Harris, into a swarm of Pirates and Gamecocks.

Enter Damani Staley.

Staley watched the ball tip off Harris’ fingers and into the right place at the right time. The senior linebacker grabbed it and ran 63 yards to the end zone, bringing an end to South Carolina’s desert-dry scoring effort and catapulting the Gamecocks to a 20-17 win over East Carolina.

“Like coach always says, tips and overthrows, you gotta get those,” Staley said. “We take a lot of pride in it.”

When Shane Beamer was asked about Staley’s interception after the game, he couldn’t help but to shake his head and puff out his lips in relief before delivering a lofty statement on Staley’s big play.

“I don’t know how the rest of the season goes, that may be the play of the year when we look back in November,” Beamer said. “For us to be playing as bad as we were on offense at that time and things not (being) so great at that time, that momentum that we felt coming into the halftime because of that play was huge.”

Staley’s interception was the highlight of an otherise abysmal first half for the Gamecocks in Greenville, North Carolina. The Gamecocks’ offense went into the locker room with 91 yards — including a minus-18 rushing total caused in part by three sacks of quarterback Zeb Noland.

The South Carolina defense was smoked on East Carolina’s first play from scrimmage, a 75-yard fake jet sweep from Tyler Snead to Jsi Hatfield for a touchdown. The good news? They didn’t give up too much more after that.

The Pirates finished the game with 268 total yards, while the Gamecocks sacked Ahlers five times and allowed him just 77 yards passing.

Senior edge Kingsley “JJ” Enagbare, who finished the game with two sacks for 15 lost yards, credited Staley’s interception as the catalyst for South Carolina’s energy shift.

“It definitely was a momentum boost for us,” Enagbare said. “After that, I feel like the whole team got a sense of urgency, and it showed.”

It’s the second interception returned for a touchdown in two games for the USC defense. Defensive lineman Jordan Burch had a pick-six in last week’s win over Eastern Illinois.

Staley, a 6-foot-1, 240-pound linebacker from Columbia’s Ridge View High School, is the son of former Gamecock and NFL running back Duce Staley. Laughing, Damani Staley said he could probably beat his father in a foot race, even though he admitted he slowed down at the end of Saturday’s touchdown run and was tired once he arrived in the end zone.

Regardless of Staley’s speed, Beamer rewarded him with high praise and a game ball in the postgame locker room celebration.

“It was an amazing feeling, my first career pick-six,” Staley said. “Great celebrating with my teammates, celebrating with my coach. It was a great feeling.”