Alabama coach Nate Oats will be the first to say that injuries are a part of basketball, but Alabama men’s basketball injury luck this season is unprecedented. Its injury luck got worse after it lost junior John Petty Jr. to a hyperextended right elbow for its matchup against South Carolina on Saturday night.

Typically, Petty’s 15 points per game and 6.6 rebounds per game can’t be replicated from a single player on Alabama’s bench on a whim, but redshirt freshman forward Javian Davis was able to make up for Petty’s averages in a 90-86 win against the Gamecocks.

“[Javian] has been in the gym a lot,” Oats said. “… He shows up in the morning at 6:30 or 7. I told him after he missed his first free throw [with five seconds remaining], ‘you didn’t show up at 6:30 to miss this thing. You put too many shots up [in the gym]. You made all of those mornings, now go finish it up.’”

The ensuing free throw sealed the game for the Crimson Tide.

Davis ended with a career-high 20 points by shooting 11 of 15 from the free throw line and 10 rebounds, five of the 10 being offensive rebounds. It was the first double-double of Davis’s career.

With 14:22 remaining in the second half, Davis attempted a 3-pointer, which he ended up rebounding in the corner. On a whim, he turned around and fired a pass to junior forward Alex Reese in the post for an easy layup. The sequence resulted in a 7-0 Crimson Tide run, leading to a 60-56 lead, one that Alabama would not surrender.

“Coach [Oats] has been believing in me in the mental aspects and the physical aspects,” Davis said. “I feel like this has been a good journey for me and I’m still on that journey trying to improve.”

With the fast-paced 3-point oriented offense that Oats instills, free throws are normally hard to come by, especially as of late. In the past four home games, the Crimson Tide has attempted just 16.75 free throw attempts per game compared to the 23 on the season.

Alabama reversed its fortune on Saturday night.

The Crimson Tide attempted a season-high 47 free throws and made a season-high of 33. Despite shooting its season average of 70% from the charity stripe, it made 11 of its final 13 attempts to end the game.

“47 [free throws by Alabama]. They should have shot 74 as bad as we were defensively,” South Carolina coach Frank Martin said.

To aid Davis, sophomore guard Kira Lewis Jr. added 25 points while shooting 3 of 4 from beyond the arc and freshman guard Jaden Shackelford finished with 18 points and seven rebounds. Despite the cast on his wrist, junior forward Herbert Jones grabbed nine rebounds and scored 10 points including 4 of 6 on his one-handed free throw. 80 of the 90 points scored by Alabama were by the starters.

“I’m really proud of all of our guys and their efforts,” Oats said. “It puts us in a great spot going into the last week of the regular season.

Alabama will play Vanderbilt on Tuesday night at 7:30 p.m. The Crimson Tide defeated Vanderbilt earlier this season in Nashville by a score of 77-62. Should Alabama win Tuesday, it would be the second consecutive season that Alabama has won both matchups against the Commodores.