Box Score  
"We just ran up against a team that had a little bit more energy and played with a little more effort than us," Head Coach Reggie Barlow said.  "They have a quality team and a quality system that they run offensively and defensively and our guys just didn't have it today. We didn't play very well; we didn't play with the energy we needed to play with away from home on the road against a really good team."
 
With the win Alcorn (5-1, 3-0 SWAC) moves a half game in front of the Hornets (4-2, 3-1 SWAC) as the loss was ASU first conference loss of the season.
 
Alcorn rushed for 391 yards on their way to piling up 608 yards of total offense.  Darryl Ragsdale had a game-high 173 yards and two scores for the Braves and quarterback John Gibbs rushed for 106 yards and added a touchdown run.  He completed 20 of his 33 pass attempts for another 217 yards.
 
Malcolm Cyrus had the lone score for ASU early in the third quarter to cut Alcorn's lead at that time to 20-7, but that would be the only score ASU could muster.
 
Cyrus, who entered the game as the SWAC's leading rusher, wound up with 65 hard fought yards, and added another 72 yards in pass receiving on five catches to finish with 135 all-purpose yards.
 
Daniel Duhart completed 15 of his 30 attempts for 205 yards and DeMario Bell had another one hundred yard receiving game with 112 yards on four receptions.
 
"I guess four games in 20 days, and I am not using that as an excuse, but we didn't have that twitch that we usually have.  I'm not going to take anything away from Alcorn they played a great game" Marcus Berg said.  "I think it was a combination of things, four games in 20 days, the long bus ride, just being on our feet all day, trying to rush through practice, I think it caught up with us.  Again I am not going to use that as an excuse.  They came out and executed a lot better than we did."
 
Kourtney Berry led the Hornets on defense with a game-high 15 tackles (12 solo).  The Hornets defense did come up with three turnovers in the game.  Two of those came in the first half and a Bradley Street fumble recovery in the second half.
 
"I think there were times when we had guys there to make a tackle and we didn't make the tackle," Barlow said.  "That kind of set us back, but it was just pure grit for them and effort on their part.  They obviously wanted it a little more than we did.  Their guys ran the ball really hard, they broke tackles and we didn't really make the tackles when we needed them."
 
The first half saw the Hornets fall behind 17-0 as Alcorn came out clicking on all cylinders.  The Braves scored the first three times they had the ball in building the lead.
 
Haide McCraney started the scoring with a 47 yard field goal midway through the first quarter.  Less than three minutes later Darryl Ragsdale broke through the Hornets defense for a 40 yard run putting the Braves up 10-0.  The final scored came on an Arron Baker one yard run.

Alcorn finished the half with 329 total yards while holding ASU to 148.  The Hornets defense did manage to cause two turnovers with Marcus Berg picking up his third interception of the game in the end zone to stop a scoring threat and Ka'Ra Stewart recovered a Brave fumble on the one yard line with less than a minute left before halftime to end another scoring threat.
 
"It's a really good learning lesson for us and we just have to be ready to play and we can't have an off day on game day," Barlow said.  They are a good football team and they really put it to us today."
 
The Hornets will be back on the road next week when they travel to Texas to play Prairie View A&M.  The game is scheduled for 2 p.m. as ASU visits the Longhorn State for the second time this season.