John Petty Jr. broke out of a mild scoring slump by producing 20 points and No. 11 Alabama held on for an 81-78 victory over South Carolina on Tuesday in Columbia, S.C.

The win snapped a two-game road losing streak for the league-leading Crimson Tide (16-5, 11-1 Southeastern Conference), which had lost to nationally ranked Oklahoma and Missouri their past two trips.

The Gamecocks (5-8, 3-6) lost for the sixth time in their past eight games.

It was Petty's biggest game since he scored a season-high 24 points in a win at LSU on Jan. 19. He averaged just 9.6 points in his past five games before Tuesday.

Jahvon Quinerly scored 13 points, Joshua Primo added 12 and Jaden Shackelford had 10 for the Tide.

AJ Lawson led South Carolina with 21 points. Keyshawn Bryant and Justin Minaya added 16 and 15, respectively, for the Gamecocks, and Seventh Woods scored 11.

The Tide led 39-36 at the break and worked their way to a 76-68 cushion with under four minutes remaining before the Gamecocks trimmed their deficit to 78-76 with just over a minute left on Bryant's jumper. A Keon Ellis free throw with 17 seconds to go increased Alabama's lead to three.

The Gamecocks missed two 3-point attempts in the closing seconds before settling for a layup to make it a one-point game.

Alabama's James Rojas ended the scoring with two free throws with 2.8 seconds left, and the Gamecocks threw the ball away on the inbounds pass as the buzzer sounded.

The Gamecocks got out of the gate quickly and built a 16-5 lead in the first 5:01 of the game. The Tide bounced back with a 10-0 run and eventually caught up at 18-18 on Joshua Primo's third 3-pointer at the 11:37 mark of the period.

The teams went back and forth the rest of the half before the Tide went on a 7-0 spurt for a 35-31 lead and closed out the half with the slim advantage.

Alabama committed a season-high 22 turnovers while South Carolina gave the ball away 19 times.

--Field Level Media