LORMAN &045; Whether he entertains with his witty repartee or those flashy, flamboyant suits, Mississippi Valley State head coach Lafayette Stribling could never be characterized as dull.

Perhaps it was fitting then, that in Alcorn’s only regular season MBC appearance, Stribling’s Devils brought an ‘A’ game worth Super Bowl ratings.

The Southwestern Athletic Conference-leading Devils shot better than 53 percent from the field, dominated the glass, created turnovers and took close care of the basketball in a 79-52 St. Valentine’s Day massacre of Alcorn.

&uot;It let us know that if we shoot the ball well, we can dominate,&uot; said Stribling, who has his team atop all of black college basketball, according to the HBCU poll. &uot;We shot lights out in the first half and dominated. In the second half we turned it over to our defense.&uot;

The win is Valley’s first sweep of Alcorn (7-14, 6-6) since the 1992-93 season after the Devils won at home 68-42 on Jan. 17.

Junior forward Solomon Forbes, who could be considered a shooting guard due to his perimeter touch, led all scorers, and four Devils in double figures, with 23 points.

However, it was the play of 6-8 center Willie Neal that put the Braves away. Neal scored four to match his season average, but notched a double-double the hard way in assists and rebounds with 10 apiece.

&uot;When we work our offense, we’re trying to run it through Willie,&uot; Stribling said. &uot;He’s a guy that can either get easy baskets or dish it off. Our guards do a good job of getting the ball to him.&uot;

Junior college transfer Hosea Butler also dished the rock well for six dimes to go along with his 17 points, as Attarius Norwood and Edward Mack reached double digits in points also, with 16 and 11, respectively.

As a team, Valley (16-6, 10-2) was generous, handing out 23 assists compared to just nine turnovers, while dropping in 33 of its 62 shots from the field, or a 53.2 percent.

&uot;We didn’t play as a team tonight like we had been doing in the past five or six games,&uot; said Braves guard Trey Johnson, who finished with 10. &uot;I don’t think we realized how big of a game this was, or how much we needed it.&uot;

Alcorn, conversely, continued to nurse its turnover bug (16) while shooting exactly 37 percent from the field. Without Brian Jackson, who finished with a team-high 12 points, hitting his 3 3-pointers, the Braves would have been 2 of 19 from beyond the arc.

It was Forbes’ long distance calls that spelled doom for Alcorn early. He bumped the lead out to 12, 21-9, with a triple before Johnson answered with one of his own to reduce it back to nine with 11:10 to play.

However, Forbes came right back, caught a looseball pass from Norwood and played string music from the other side.

&uot;He’s consistently been shooting like that since the start of SWAC season,&uot; Stribling said of Forbes, his team’s leading scorer at 14.6 per game.

The downward spiral only got dizzier for the Braves. An example of Alcorn’s woes came on a sequence where John Chandler poorly missed an ill-advised triple and Mack made him pay on the other end with a baseline jumper.

Mack’s bucket put Valley up 33-15, with 5:52 left. The Devils never backed off, as they went up 40-18 after Forbes hit his third 3 of the half, followed by deuces from Butler and Mack.

&uot;We didn’t come out intense enough on defense,&uot; Johnson said. &uot;We can go without scoring on offense sometimes when the defense is there. They wanted it worst than we did.&uot;

The Devils’ halftime lead was cut to 18 during the open minutes of the second, as Valley finally cooled off. Nonetheless, the Braves squandered the golden opportunity when their shooting shortcomings continued.

Instead, a more than two-minute scoreless stretched ensued after a Johnson bucket with 15:41 left.

Forbes, as he seemingly did throughout, stepped up when it counted with a bomb.