BATON ROUGE &045;Five minutes into Saturday’s Southwestern Athletic Conference showdown between Alcorn and Southern resembled the two teams’ recent histories with one another on the hardwood.

The Braves had won the last seven contests against their foes to the South, and during the early going that pattern was alive and kicking.

Enter 6-5 Deon Saunders, who had missed the last two games for Southern &045; a pair of buzzer beater losses &045; with a strained tendon in his right knee.

Saunders was the Chi the Jags needed to squelch Alcorn’s early outburst, manhandling the Braves in the second half of a 84-73 victory.

&uot;It looks like he picked up from where he left off at,&uot; Southern head coach Michael Grant said of Saunders, who finished with 15 points. &uot;I just wanted to get him back in the groove. It looks like I should’ve started him. I kept him toward the end so he can start to get his breath back.&uot;

In a contest pitting first year coaches against one another, the Braves (5-12, 4-5) broke out to an early 10-point lead before Saunders was subbed in.

From the 15-minute mark of the first half and on, Southern (8-10, 5-4) looked like a team that had found a new life with Saunders, a transfer from the University of Hartford.

Saunders drew a lot of attention from the Alcorn defense, creating opportunities for the likes of former Copiah-Lincoln guard Jerimie Collier, who finished with a game-high 24 points.

&uot;He’s been the player of the week in this league twice since the start of the season,&uot; Braves head coach Sam West said. &uot;He’s a heck of a player and we couldn’t match his physical play and intensity.&uot;

Alcorn could not match much of anything after springing out to a 13-3 lead in the game’s opening minutes.

Trey Johnson and DeAndre Jones had two explosive dunks to ignite the early surge, but the storyline did not get much better.

Southern had season highs in points, steals (21), assists (18), 3-point field goal percentage (54.3) and, most notably turnovers forces, of which the Braves had 30.

To West, the loss was not as disappointing as his team’s performance.

&uot;Southern is a good basketball team. They played well tonight,&uot; he said. &uot;We had 30 turnovers. It was simple: poor execution. How are you gonna win with 30 turnovers? You’re not.&uot;

The Jags took their first lead of the game with 1:34 left before halftime on a layup from Collier, as Saunders was credited with a nice assist.