LORMAN &045; The season can’t get any bumpier, can it?

The season of struggles, injuries and other obstacles has come down to this for the Alcorn State Braves &045; this weekend’s homestand against Texas Southern and Prairie View are virtually must-win games to get into the Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament next week.

The Braves (7-9, 8-17) are in a three-way tie with Prairie View and Southern in the 7, 8 and 9 spots in the standings with just the top eight teams getting invitations to the tournament in Birmingham. The Braves could have put themselves in better shape with a win Saturday against Southern, but the loss knocked them into precarious standing in the final weekend of the regular season.

The Braves host Texas Southern at 7:30 p.m. today and Prairie View A&M on Saturday.

&uot;I think everybody realized there’s a sense of urgency at hand,&uot; ASU assistant coach Perry Fletcher said. &uot;That’s the biggest thing about playing late in the season &045; it’s do or die. If you’re a basketball player, you want to be playing on Spring Break. You don’t want to be home watching your buddies on TV. Plus, when you lose a game like that, the guys finally realized the things coach has been preaching.&uot;

And, like coach Samuel West probably said before the Southern game, that was one the Braves needed. And it hurt in the worst way &045; the Braves led most of the game before a meltdown late against the Jaguars pressed cost them another game at home.

But there’s no use lamenting over what could have been or should have been. Two wins will get Alcorn to the tournament, and once you’re there anything can happen.

&uot;It hurt, the loss to Southern,&uot; point guard DeAndre Jones said. &uot;We had a lead and lost it late, but we’ve still got a good chance. We can’t hang our heads. The ball is in our court, and we’ve got to make it happen.&uot;

It was cause for West to be disgusted, especially since it’s come at the end of a roller coaster ride in his first season at the helm. The team has endured a switch of the guards &045; Jones and transfer Trey Johnson switched from point to 2-guard last month &045; and an assortment of injuries and sicknesses.

And in situations like these, you can’t say it’s time to go back to the basics. That’s where they remain.

&uot;We’ve never left the basics,&uot; West said. &uot;We’ve been on the basics all year. It’s basic fundamental basketball. We’ll continue to work on the basics until we learn them. That’s been the difference all year. We don’t execute the basic fundamentals of basketball. It comes down to the big three &045; rebounding, free-throw shooting and not having turnovers with the basketball.&uot;

The Braves come into the homestand as the worst in the conference in rebounding at 31.5 boards a game but have held opponents to 32.4 rebounds a game, a mark that’s second-best in the conference. They’re also last in block shots (2.08 per game), assists (9.76 per game), turnovers (minus-5.32 per game) and assist-turnover ratio (0.52).

The turnover factor proved evident in the loss to Southern when the Jaguars went to a full-court press late in the game. The Braves blew a 12-point lead, and the Jaguars ended up taking an eight-point lead with under a minute to play.

&uot;That’s the thing that’s been hurting us all year,&uot; Jones said. &uot;We made bad decisions. We were trying to break the press by trying to score instead of kicking it out and slowing it down. We should have slowed it down, but that’s in the past. We’ve got to deal with what’s in front of us. We’re looking forward to the Prairie View game, but we have Texas Southern first and we’re trying to win out. We’re trying to win out, but it’ll come down to the Prairie View game. And we want Texas Southern &045; they beat us.&uot;

The preseason favorite to win the conference, Texas Southern is certainly not a team to be overlooked. The Tigers handed Alcorn a blistering 72-49 loss in Houston to start the conference back on Jan. 3.

&uot;If we can beat Texas Southern, we’re essentially in,&uot; West said. &uot;But it does come down to the Prairie View game. We hope we can beat Texas Southern. They beat us three times last year and once this year. It would be a big feather in our cap. They’re the No. 2 team right now. They’re very physical inside and very athletic.&uot;