LORMAN &045; From the smiles spread across each of their faces and the laughs and cheers that bellowed from their souls, you could tell Alcorn’s players and coaches had been anticipating this.

The Braves’ bench was home to clapping, shouts of &uot;Defense, defense,&uot; ear-to-ear grins and a lot of cutting up on Thursday.

It’s been a while, which is why it was ecstasy if you were an Alcorn fan to see the reserves play the final seven minutes; senior forward Dion Callans leave for the locker room with his arm around the shoulders of his head coach Sam West; and, most importantly, a 73-56 victory against Texas Southern.

It was the biggest margin of victory in Southwestern Athletic Conference play for the Braves since a 69-50 win at home against Alabama State last season.

It also put Alcorn (9-17, 8-9 SWAC) in better shape for the final SWAC Tournament spot, especially given that Prairie View lost to Southern 87-66 Thursday.

The Braves were tied with both of those squads entering Thursday, but will host Prairie View, a team they previously beat, on Saturday.

&uot;Tonight they decided they wanted to play the way that coach wants us to play,&uot; West said of his team. &uot;And I think that’s the most fun and entertaining style of basketball you can play.&uot;

Callans and Brian Jackson led Alcorn with 14 points, on a night when the Braves shot 47.4 percent from the field and connected on 11 of 24 3-pointers.

Alcorn also reversed the assist-turnover tide by dishing out a season-high 21 dimes, compared to a season-low 12 turnovers.

Backs against the wall and in danger of handing in their jerseys, the Braves answered the bell and posted their largest win of the season.

A 64-51 victory over Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Jan. 19 was the best prior to Thursday.

&uot;Maybe that’s the way we need to play every time out. Everybody responded well,&uot; said Callans, who picked up a double-double with 10 rebounds. &uot;We knew what was at stake. We came out and played not our best basketball but one of our bests.&uot;

Determined to not endure a repeat of Saturday’s meltdown against Southern, in which the Braves blew a 12-point lead with nine minutes left to lose 71-64, Alcorn exploded out of the gates to being the second half.

Alcorn built on its six-point halftime lead with a DeAndre Jones’ 3, putting the Braves ahead 42-31 with 16:39 remaining.

Jones was whistled for a technical after taunting his defender, but the Tigers (14-13, 10-7) only converted one of the freebies and then committed on of their 17 turnovers.

&uot;Alcorn came out ready to play,&uot; TSU head coach Ronnie Courtney said. &uot;Their backs were against the wall and they responded exactly how I expected them to.&uot;

The technical free throw Michael Sneed made brought the Tigers to within 10. That was the closest the Braves allowed TSU to get the rest of the way.

Sneed finished with 19 points on four of six shooting from downtown, but just three points came in the second half, as Courtney allowed his bench to see some action too.

&uot;At this point, playing for pride doesn’t excite me. I just wanted to keep us in favorable position in the tournament,&uot; Courtney said.

Trey Johnson buried his only two field goals of the night, both triples, within 90 seconds of one another, extending the Alcorn lead out to 52-36 with 13:26 left.

It grew to 20, 68-48, when David McCollum knocked in two free throws with 4:00 left. McCollum scored 10 points.

&uot;I said it on the bench that it was good to sit back like Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen with ice on our knees and watch the reserves get some time,&uot; said Callans, who watched Alcorn’s bench score 27 points.

Callans jokingly threw a towel over West’s head with more than a minute left when his coach called him back to the bench, seconds after Callans made his way to the scorer’s table to check back in.