There were plenty of reasons for Alcorn head basketball coach Davey L. Whitney to be unhappy following his team’s loss Saturday night at Jackson State.

For the second straight game the Braves played their best ball after falling in a 20-point hole in the second half.

The Braves are 0-3 right now in the Southwestern Athletic Conference and 2-13 on the season.

And turnovers continue to be the problem for the Braves.

So it’s no wonder why Whitney &045; still two wins shy of career win No. 400 &045; spiked the ball in the waning seconds of Saturday’s loss after a turnover (he didn’t get T’d up, either).

He asked all reporters to be ushered out of the hallway leading to the locker room after the game, and he asked all media to listen to his radio commentary with Charles Edmond for quotes from the game.

But no one took it personal. His Braves are struggling, and this wasn’t the way the legendary coach &045; who told CBS last season he’d like to make the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament &045; wanted to go out.

&uot;The thing that happened was we wanted to go inside,&uot; Whitney said. &uot;We hit a 3-pointer, and then we went away from our game plan. We know what our strength is, and a lot of times we play to our weakness.&uot;

And the turnovers were a big problem again. That’s been the case so far this season, and the Braves finished the game with 27 to Jackson State’s 20.

The Braves played defense. They just had to fight back.

&uot;We didn’t get many points off of their mistakes,&uot; Whitney said.

But give the Braves, however, credit for clawing back and making a game out of it on the road. Maybe it was the whole Alcorn-Jackson State rivalry thing, but the Braves played some of their best ball of the year down by 20 in the second half.

A couple missed free throws or shots that didn’t fall could have made all the difference in the world for the Braves.

&uot;It’s a rivalry,&uot; Jackson State forward Cliff Walker said. &uot;A lot of people in Jackson went to Alcorn. This crowd was much like the Capital City Classic crowd.&uot;

Fortunately for everyone involved the season is still young, and the 0-3 Braves and 2-1 Tigers aren’t very far apart in the big picture. Each has 13 more games to go, but the Braves could surely use a win soon.

&uot;The important thing is you’ve got to win your home games,&uot; JSU head coach Andy Stoglin said. &uot;If you win at home and split on the road, you’ve got a chance. The only other teams that have road wins are Texas Southern and Prairie View.

&uot;Alcorn has a tremendous team. They can go to Texas and win, and we can go to Texas and win. Our guys get up for Alcorn.&uot;

Now the Braves have to get up for Grambling on the road tonight in fear of starting off conference 0-4.

Adam Daigle

is sports editor of The Natchez Democrat. You can reach him at (601) 445-3632 or by e-mail at

adam.daigle@natchezdemocrat.com.