LORMAN &8212; Even when it looks and feels like home, Mississippi Valley&8217;s Devilettes don&8217;t let the surroundings bother them.

They treat it like the road game that it is. And in a season that&8217;s shaping up to be one of the best in the program&8217;s history, there&8217;s no place like the road.

The Devilettes &8212; with two Natchez High grads playing in front of family &8212; posted another win on the road Saturday night with a 63-54 decision over Alcorn State for their fourth win in five tries on the road.

Yeah, it sounds funny. That&8217;s why head coach Nate Kilbert was smiling after the win Saturday &8212; his team&8217;s second straight win in Lorman and third in the last four meetings in a series long dominated by Alcorn.

&8220;The last game at home, we beat Alabama A&M by one,&8221; said Kilbert, now two wins away from his first winning season in conference. &8220;I told our radio guy I couldn&8217;t wait to go to Alcorn. The big thing is we&8217;re more focused. That&8217;s what we&8217;ve got to get our kids to understand &8212; you&8217;ve got to be more focused on the road. So many people are pulling on you at home.&8221;

Christen West may be able to attest to that, although the former Natchez High standout may have had a little of that Saturday in front of family and friends for the first time. She sharp shooter canned 18 points as one of three Valley players in double figures, including a bucket late in her team&8217;s 20-2 run early in the second half.

What&8217;s that old saying of playing on the road? A .500 mark is considered successful?

Go figure.

&8220;Tonight we had more fans behind us than home,&8221; West said. &8220;Everybody was trying to focus, tune the fans out and execute our game plan as well as possible. It&8217;s always everybody against us (on the road). When everything is against us, we want to prove everybody wrong and show we can play well.&8221;

They couldn&8217;t have been better in the first eight minutes of the second half when they put the game away, stretching a 31-28 lead at halftime to 54-32 at the 12:24 mark. The Devilettes did it by forcing turnovers, switching defenses and keeping the ball out of the hands of ASU standout post Rasaan Powell.

Portia Wilson knocked down a 3-pointer from the corner at the 13:38 mark for a 52-32 lead. Alcorn regrouped when Kilbert called a timeout, but Alcorn turned it over immediately.

Vanesha Young hit two free throws on Valley&8217;s next possession for a 54-32 lead.

&8220;I thought we were on a roll,&8221; Alcorn head coach Shirley Walker said. &8220;And the turnovers &8212; the unforced turnovers &8212; that&8217;s what makes it so frustrating to me. I think we beat ourselves. It wasn&8217;t what the other team did. It&8217;s what we did to ourselves.&8221;

The Lady Braves had a number of turnovers in the stretch and finished the game with 24. The run lasted nine minutes, and the only thing Alcorn could account for that came from the field was a Natasha Dennis jumper from the side of the free-throw line.

Powell, who finished with 22 points as the team&8217;s only scorer in double figures, hit two free throws before tossing in a putback off a Tanika Nunez miss at the 11:00 mark. That put Valley&8217;s lead at 54-36.

&8220;We came out and played hard,&8221; West said. &8220;Everybody shot really well from behind the line. We played just team ball, and that&8217;s what contributed to our big lead.&8221;

The biggest drawback of that whole run was it may have relaxed the Devilettes with the big lead so early. Alcorn found ways to get it into Powell to get back into the game &8212; the Lady Braves went on a 17-4 run &8212; to make things interesting with just under a minute left.

Powell had 12 of the 17 points, but Tiffaney Smith knocked down a 3-pointer 48 seconds left that cut the deficit to 58-51. But the Lady Braves couldn&8217;t get a bucket to fall after that, and Valley hit five of eight free throws to close it out.

&8220;I think we got caught up into trying to work the clock instead of working our offense,&8221; Kilbert said. &8220;I think a lot of that had to do with me, too. We wanted to get the shot clock to 10 seconds before we shot it. I think that hurt us.&8221;

If there is such things as perils of the road for Valley, that was one of them. The Devilettes went almost nine minutes without scoring a bucket, but they kept their focus and hit free throws down the stretch.

Another big road game awaits &8212; Monday at Southern &8212; while Alcorn tries to sort out ways to stay in the hunt for the SWAC tournament.

&8220;I think we went about eight minutes without scoring,&8221; ex-Bulldog guard Karmethia Mazique said. &8220;That&8217;s something we need to work on &8212; keeping a lead. Southern is a good team. They&8217;re No. 1 in conference. But I think we&8217;ve got a pretty good chance.&8221;