AJ Lawson found himself in a familiar spot Saturday night.

Down three with seven seconds left, Lawson caught the ball in the left corner with the opportunity to tie the game and potentially send what would have been a resume-building win into overtime.

Lawson has fond memories of threes from the left corner; just a game earlier Lawson drilled a game-tying three from the same spot in a win over Georgia and found himself in an eerily similar situation against Alabama with a little less time left.

The only thing different was the time and the result. Lawson bricked it as the Gamecocks’ final heave near the buzzer and South Carolina ultimately lost by four to the Crimson Tide, 90-86.

“I saw we were down by three at the time and I was thinking about tying the game,” Lawson said. “(Frank Martin) told me I should have attacked the basket and looked for another open teammate.”

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Lawson’s shot was the Gamecocks’ last-ditch effort to tie the game but was just one of two potentially game-tying looks they missed in the final 30 seconds of Saturday’s game.

With 34 seconds left, Keyshawn Bryant forced a miss and found himself with the ball in the middle of the court leading a fast break with Lawson streaking to his right.

Instead of passing to Lawson sprinting up the floor—which head coach Frank Martin said was the right call—Bryant decided to heave the ball at the rim from inside the lane, missing it completely as the ball bounced off the backboard.

“I didn’t like either play. I have no idea what Keyshawn tried to do shooting a floater from 12 feet with a three on two and a half there,” Martin said. “We’re going to shoot a three, let’s take a good three and not some sideways jumping fade away three. I thought it was a bad play and I told him that.”

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For Bryant, it was his first real chance to either tie or a win a game in his career. If he makes it, it changes the entire complexion of the final 30 seconds and could have given the Gamecocks a much-needed, resume-boosting win.

“I got the rebound and I saw the open look so I tried to take it. I should have taken one more dribble and an extra pass,” Bryant said. “It was me trying to make a basketball play.”

But one of the biggest reasons the Gamecocks (17-12, 9-7 SEC) were even in the game to begin with down the stretch was, in large part, because of Bryant’s efforts.

The sophomore tallied his third-straight double-double, piecing together a career-high 22 points on 9-for-13 shooting with 13 rebounds. He’d finish plus-9 for the game, the highest of anyone on the floor Saturday night.

Over his last three games Bryant is averaging 17.7 points on almost 50 percent shooting and 11 rebounds. He’s got a 3-to-1 assist to turnover ratio as well.

“Keyshawn’s given us three pretty good games in a row. Without him, we’re not in the game at the end. He’s got to grow. That play right there is new to him. He’s never been asked to take the ball and make decisions for him. That’s going to be a learning moment for him to make a better decision,” Martin said. “I was yelling at him he should have passed the ball, because he should have. He should have advanced it to AJ and AJ could have thrown it back to him but he didn’t. At the end of the day, I’d like him to be more forceful in the open court at the rim and not shoot a floater from 12 feet.”

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The Gamecocks lost their third game in four tries Saturday night, blowing an early 12-point lead and trailing by as many as seven in the second half to the Tide.

Defense again was the issue with the Tide shooting 43.6 percent from the field and getting to the line a whopping 47 times, the most any Gamecock opponent has this season.

South Carolina committed 23 fouls in Tuscaloosa with five different guys having three or more.

One was a flagrant on Jermaine Couisnard with two minutes to go that resulted in two makes for Alabama and a bucket, essentially a four-point swing with the Gamecocks down two at the time.

“It’s huge. That’s two plays. Keyshawn in a two point game and can’t make the play. then Jermaine in a two-point game turns it over and whacks the guy in the face. Those are the fouls we committed all night; just bad, bad plays. You put a team on the line 47 times you don’t deserve to win.”