Redshirt junior Jasper Johnson scored 23 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and senior guard Dante Stiggers added 11 points, dished out nine assists and had seven steals for Southern Miss, which improved to 6-2 under first-year head coach Larry Eustachy.

"The night started out well," Eustachy said. "We got away from our game plan at times, but this was the best 40 minutes we’ve played this season.

"This game is all about playing hard," he added. "If we play hard, we can be successful. I thought we came out determined, and played harder than we have all year."

Alcorn State dropped to 1-7 with the loss.

Johnson connected on his first seven shots from the floor and was 3-of-3 from the line in the first half, when he scored 17 points on his way to the fifth double-double of his career.

The visiting Braves had no answer for the 6-foot-8, 290-pound center in the paint as Johnson scored with regularity from the low blocks.

Alcorn State scored the opening bucket of the game, but Southern Miss scored the next 15 points and never looked back. The Golden Eagles followed up the 15-0 spurt with another 9-0 run later in the half and led by as many as 28 on their way to a 45-23 halftime lead.

The visiting Braves never threatened in the second half, with the final score representing the closest margin of the game’s final 15 minutes. While the Southern Miss offense cooled from the field slightly, Stiggers and the Golden Eagle defense forced Alcorn State into 23 turnovers for the game, 16 coming on steals.

Southern Miss had 17 turnovers.

Almaad Jackson led Alcorn State with 15 points, while DeAndre Jones added 12 and a team-high seven rebounds.

Four Golden Eagles scored in double figures. In addition to Johnson and Stiggers, Michael Ford had 19 points and Jason Forte added 16 and seven rebounds.

Southern Miss shot 45.9 percent from the floor (28-of-61), while Alcorn hit 36.1 percent of its attempts (22-of-61).

The Golden Eagles now take a week off before hosting LSU in a "home" contest in the Grand Classic on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Game time is set for 2 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 20, at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. Tickets remain available for the game, and fans can call the Southern Miss Ticket Office at 601-266-5418 or 1-800-844-TICK.