BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Big plays by the quarterbacks -- South Florida's Quinton Flowers and South Carolina's Jake Bentley -- grabbed the spotlight during South Florida's 46-39 Birmingham Bowl victory in overtime over the Gamecocks on Thursday afternoon at Legion Field.

Flowers, the game MVP, accounted for 376 yards and five touchdowns, while Bentley threw for 390 yards and three touchdowns.

But the USF defense, which was opportunistic all day, had the final say in securing the victory.

The Bulls (11-2), who forced five turnovers, including a pair of fumbles inside the USF 5-yard line, got a fourth-down sack by Mike Love in overtime to begin the USF celebration. Love's sack, which caused a Bentley fumble, ensured that Flowers' 25-yard touchdown pass to Elkanah Dillon on the first play of the Bulls' overtime possession provided the winning points.

"I think it's just a great team win," said USF interim head coach T.J. Yeist, who took over for the bowl game when Willie Taggart took the head coaching job at Oregon and now relinquishes the spot to incoming head coach Charlie Strong. "It wasn't pretty. We're one play away from them being on this side -- it's as simple as that."

It wasn't until overtime was finished that the Bulls could finally celebrate a school-record 11th victory this season. When the game began, however, it looked like the celebration might come a lot earlier.

Flowers deftly directed the Bulls to a 15-0 lead before 11 minutes elapsed on the clock. During that time, Flowers had seven carries for 47 yards, including a pair of 4-yard scoring runs, and completed 8 of 9 passes for 64 yards. The Bulls used a trick play to complete a two-point conversion pass from backup quarterback Brett Kean to tight end Mitchell Wilcox after the first touchdown.

By halftime, Flowers had 267 yards of offense with three scoring runs and a 37-yard touchdown pass to D'Ernest Johnson. The scoring toss came with seven seconds left in the second quarter, on fourth-and-3, and gave the Bulls a 29-14 halftime lead.

Johnson also had a strong first half with 21 yards rushing, six catches for 95 yards, including a 22-yard reception on fourth down that set up Flowers' third scoring run, and 48 yards in returns.

It would have been more lopsided at half if Bentley had not heated up. The freshman threw an interception on the team's opening series but he rebounded to complete the first half 15 of 19 for 198 yards with touchdown strikes of 25 yards to Hayden Hurst and 3 yards to Deebo Samuel.

Samuel capped an impressive eight-play, 65-yard march to open the second half with a 4-yard touchdown run that trimmed the deficit to 29-21.

Overall, the Bulls managed 333 yards of offense before halftime. In the second half, though, they had just 111 yards.

"It's very frustrating when you have guys in position and you can't get a guy on the ground," said South Carolina head coach Will Muschamp, whose team finished 6-7 in his first season. "We didn't do anything different (schematically) in the second half and we only gave up 111 yards."

The Bulls built a comfortable advantage in the third quarter after a 21-yard field goal by Brandon Behr and a 47-yard interception return by Tajee Fullwood. But Bentley and the Gamecocks refused to fold.

The Gamecocks pulled to within 39-31 after a 43-yard field goal by Elliott Fry late in the third quarter and a 9-yard touchdown pass from Bentley to Bryan Edwards with 9:41 left.

South Carolina blew an opportunity to tie with just over four minutes remaining when running back A.J. Turner lost a fumble at the USF 1-yard line. But the Gamecocks forced a quick punt, which was returned 38 yards to the 3-yard line by Chris Lammons. Turner redeemed himself with a 1-yard touchdown run with 1:11 left. Bentley then found Hurst for the game-tying 2-point conversion.

"We didn't blink at all," said Flowers, who played much of the second half with a deep gash on his non-throwing hand. "You're going to get scored on but, at the end of the day, you've got bounce back."

The Bulls did just that and were able to come away with a Birmingham Bowl victory.

NOTES: South Carolina's Deebo Samuel, the team's leading receiver, accounted for six touchdowns this season but did not have a touchdown reception until Thursday. His 3-yard catch in the first half marked his first touchdown catch of the year. He finished with a bowl record 14 catches for 190 yards. ... Quinton Flowers broke the Birmingham Bowl record for touchdown runs by halftime. ... Thursday marked the third consecutive time that the Birmingham Bowl included at least one team playing under an interim head coach.