BATON ROUGE &8212; When Southern&8217;s Chris Alexander nailed a 3-pointer for the Jaguars&8217; first points of the game, it served as an anomaly.

When teammate Deforrest Riley-Smith added another trey less than 30 seconds later, it became a trend.

And when Alexander swished yet another trey early in the second half, the shot foreshadowed the long night ahead for Alcorn State.

Southern &8212; a team that entered the game as the SWAC&8217;s worst 3-point shooting team &8212; swished a season-high 11 3-pointers in a 72-55 victory over Alcorn on Saturday night.

&8220;They were wide-open looks,&8221; Alcorn coach Samuel West said of Southern&8217;s perimeter shooting. &8220;We did a poor job of communicating. You&8217;ve got to play better against the No. 1 team in the conference. We didn&8217;t get it done tonight.&8221;

Southern (9-10 overall, 8-1 in SWAC) maintained its spot at the top of the SWAC standings with the victory, while Alcorn lost for the fifth time in the last six games.

For Alcorn (4-14, 4-5), though, the Jaguars&8217; impressive 3-point shooting made little difference in the outcome.

Alcorn went through one of its worst shooting slumps of the season in the first half, going 10:32 without a field goal.

Southern took advantage with a 17-0 run, which was punctuated with three straight 3-pointers by Riley-Smith. The Jaguars made 7-of-10 3-pointers in the first half to build a 40-18 lead.

&8220;You never know how this team is going to come out and

play,&8221; West said. &8220;I&8217;ve got to do a better job of

getting them ready.&8221;

Alcorn used an 8-0 run early in the second half to

remain in contention, and a 3-pointer by Delvin

Thompson cut the Southern lead to 11, at 45-34.

Alcorn later cut the lead to 12, at 53-41, on a

three-point play by Thompson with 8:47 to go.

Less than a minute later, freshman Anthony Ford went

to the free throw line for a 1-and-1 opportunity. Ford

missed the free throw.

Southern responded with back-to-back 3-pointers &045; one

by Riley-Smith and another by Mott &045; to push the lead

back to 59-41. Alcorn never recovered.

Thompson scored 11 of his 13 points in the second

half, and Clif Douglass added 11 points. Juan Wyatt

had 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocks.

Alcorn played without forward Almaad Jackson in the

second half after Jackson suffered an ankle injury in

the first half. The team&8217;s leading rebounder, Jackson

finished with two points and three rebounds in 13

minutes.

Riley-Smith paced Southern with 22 points to lead four

players in double figures. Mott added 14 points off

the bench. The duo combined to shoot 8-of-10 from

3-point range.

Alcorn hurt itself with poor free throw shooting &045;

again! &045; as the Braves made just 9-of-18 at the line.

Southern shot 56 percent for the game &045; the best

shooting performance against Alcorn in SWAC play this

season.

&8220;We&8217;ve just got to go back to the drawing board,&8221;

West said.