LORMAN &045; Alcorn head women’s coach Shirley Walker watched the film from Monday’s loss at Alabama A&M and had the same feeling after watching the game at Grambling two weeks earlier.

And it wasn’t good at all.

What’s really put a bad taste in the veteran coach’s mouth is both games came a night after her Lady Braves played good ball. Even though Alcorn lost the opener of last week’s road trip at Alabama State, the team played well enough in a hostile environment to win.

Fast forward to today’s home contest against Southern, and that sour feeling still lingers.

&uot;I looked at that game, and it looked to me like we said, ‘A&M, we don’t want the game’ and A&M said to us, ‘we don’t want the game,’&uot; Walker said. &uot;Somewhere between seven and five minutes (left), A&M got the momentum going and won the game. I don’t think we showed up to play that game.

&uot;What we need from the Alcorn State women’s basketball team is some intensity.&uot;

There may be no better time to do that. The Lady Braves are coming off those two losses sitting in fifth place in the SWAC at 8-7 with three games remaining &045; Southern and next week’s homestand against Texas Southern and Prairie View A&M.;

The Lady Braves have a spot locked up for the conference tournament, but getting a high seed is the priority right now. What better way to move up than to &uot;In the meeting (Tuesday) night, we talked about a lot of things,&uot; Walker said. &uot;We have to be very aggressive and have a strong mental aspect going in to play Southern. We’re going to have to dive at every loose ball, play defense, make our free throws and play good basketball. We need to take care of our home, so let’s grow up and be women and play basketball at the Division I level.&uot;

The free throw part of it has been nagging at the Lady Braves like a belligerent telemarketer. They’ve been inconsistent from the line this year, and during some big games the Lady Braves couldn’t seem to miss &045; they made all 12 in the first half at Jackson State three weeks ago.

Then last week at Alabama State they missed 14 free throws and lost by 10.

&uot;I thought we played real good Saturday night,&uot; Walker said. &uot;I thought some things happened in that game took their minds off it. I kept saying, ‘You’ve got to play through that and keep doing what you’re doing.’ We played well, but we didn’t do anything Monday night.

&uot;That Alabama trip was the same as Jackson-Grambling. The only thing is making stops. We’ve got to put a stop to Southern.&uot;

The Lady Jaguars handed Alcorn a 76-68 defeat in Baton Rouge last month, and they have since risen to the top half of the standings. Right now the Lady Braves are still in good shape to get one of the higher seeds &045; Alabama State plays at Texas this weekend &045; if they play well down the stretch.

But first things first &045; the Lady Braves need to redeem themselves against Southern after letting the game unravel in Baton Rouge in the last 12 minutes.

&uot;I don’t like to count my chickens before they hatch,&uot; Walker said. &uot;We’ll focus on Southern and hope we play well. I thought we played well (at Southern). What I don’t like about this team is we like to play catch-up ball. This is what I don’t understand, and this is what we’ve been doing lately.&uot;

NOTES &045; Walker confirmed Port Gibson product Catronda Thornton is no longer on the team. The 6-2 sophomore center who came off the bench last year as a defensive specialist last played against Alabama State back on Jan. 24. She missed some time to have surgery on her nose, but Walker said, &uot;She has some things she needs to take care of.&uot;