[03/06/02]LORMAN If Tuesday night’s first-round Southwestern Athletic Conference tournament game against Grambling State was Alcorn coach Davey Whitney’s last in the gym that bears his name, the Braves sent him out in style.

Alcorn (19-9) seized control of the game with a 13-1 run just before halftime and shot 57 percent from the field in the second half to slowly put the game out reach and cruise to a 108-84 win.

Alcorn’s bench scored 52 points, led by Lee Cook and Tori Harris with 13 each, and the Braves committed just three turnovers in the first half.

Alcorn advances to face Texas Southern Friday at 6:30 p.m. in the semifinals in Birmingham, Ala. The Braves beat Texas Southern, 93-86, in their last meeting.

Whitney has said he will retire at the end of this season, but said Monday he may stay for another year. Whatever his final decision, the Braves said they’re not ready to send him into the sunset yet.

“Not before this game, but before the game Saturday against Prairie View, we talked about all that because that was our last home regular-season game and we didn’t want to end it there,” said Alcorn senior Marcus Fleming, who led the Braves with 22 points and seven rebounds in his last home game. “We wanted to take (Whitney) into the (NCAA) Tournament so we can leave in glory and he can leave in glory.”

Whitney also wasn’t ready to think about hanging up his whistle. He just wishes everyone else would stop thinking about it for a couple of weeks, too.

“It’s an iffy situation. It’s up in the air. I said a long time ago I was going to quit after this season, but I’m not going to make that final decision until after I get the job done,” Whitney said. “I haven’t thought about it too much, I didn’t want to think about it too much, because everywhere I go, I get it at least 30 times a day are you going to leave?’ You won’t believe this, just tonight it must have been 15 people asked me … But I don’t think about it, and I’m not going to think about it until after the season is over with.”

William McDonald led Grambling with 22 points, Paul Haynes added 17 and Ron Ellis and Antoine McKinsey had 14 each.

Brian Jackson added 14 points and point guard Jeff Cammon had seven points, no turnovers and a career-high 12 assists for Alcorn, which took the lead off of the opening tip and never trailed.

After Walter Harper won the tip for the Braves, Cammon hit Jackson for a fast-break alley-oop dunk that triggered a 12-2 Alcorn run over the first three minutes.

Grambling whittled away at the lead throughout the first half, however, and cut it to 36-35 with about 2 1/2 minutes to play.

The Braves then turned on the defensive pressure, forcing four turnovers in the final two minutes that led to nine points in their 13-1 run.

“We wanted to pressure them late in the first half and come out in the second half and do the same thing, and I think it kind of upset them a little bit,” Whitney said.

Harper capped the outburst with a 3-pointer from the right wing that bounced high off the rim before dropping in to give the Braves a 49-36 lead with four seconds left in the half. It was just the sixth 3-pointer for Harper in 11 attempts this season.

“It wasn’t designed like that. When I passed the ball, I didn’t realize it was Walter or I might not have passed it,” Alcorn guard Jason Cable said with a laugh. “That was a big shot going into halftime. That really gave us a lot of momentum.”

The Braves didn’t have another huge run in the second half, but instead used solid all-around play to increase the lead to as many as 28 points.

Alcorn was 5-for-7 from 3-point range in the second half, committed only two turnovers in the first 13 minutes of the half and didn’t allow Grambling to score more than two consecutive baskets without answering with one of its own.

Backup forward Howard Myles hit a 3-pointer with 2:01 to play to put Alcorn ahead 101-74 and over 100 points for the first time this season.

The Braves, the SWAC regular-season champions and the tournament’s top seed, have scored at least 90 in each of their last four games and at least 84 points in nine of their last 10. During that streak, they’re 8-2.

“I think we can play better, but we’re playing very well right now,” Whitney said.

“We’re shooting the ball extremely well.”