The Southern women's basketball team was dancing after the top-seeded Jaguars took care of business with a 64-44 win over No. 6-seeded Alcorn State in the championship game of the Southwestern Athletic Conference Tournament on Saturday afternoon in Atlanta.
There will be more dancing this week because the win means that Southern is headed to the Big Dance as the SWAC's automatic qualifier.
A day after Southern struggled to maintain a double-digit, fourth-quarter lead in its 51-47 semifinal win over Jackson State, the Jaguars finished strong against the Braves. Southern led 51-36 after three quarters and never let Alcorn get closer than 12 points down the stretch.
The win gives Southern (19-14) its third SWAC Tournament title in seven seasons under coach Carlos Funchess. The Jaguars also won titles in 2019 and 2023, and they will be looking for their first NCAA Tournament win.
The NCAA bracket selection show will air at 7 p.m. Sunday on ESPN.
After the win, Funchess gave credit to assistant coaches Jeremy Bonin, TJ Pugh and Patrece Carter.
"It's a team effort, not just myself," Funchess said. "I have a great coaching staff, the best in the country bar none. And the young ladies, they bought in."
The turning point came in the second quarter when Southern switched from a man-to-man defense to a 2-3 zone. The Jaguars went on to outscore Alcorn (14-18) 16-4 in the quarter. The separation gave Southern all the room it needed to control the second half.
"We did put a lot of pressure on them defensively," Funchess said. "I thought they weren't ready for the zone because we hadn't played zone all year. The girls really wanted to play zone because Alcorn runs a really great motion offense.
"It was tough for us to go at them man-to-man so we went 2-3 zone. (The team) believed in it, and we got the job done."
Southern scored 25 points off of 17 Alcorn turnovers. The Jaguars had plenty of contributors and outscored the Alcorn bench 28-10.
Aniya Gourdine was named the tournament MVP after a stat line that read nine points, four rebounds, three assists and two steals Saturday. Soniyah Reed, DaKiyah Sanders and Tionna Lidge each scored 11 points. Lidge also grabbed 11 rebounds, and Jocelyn Tate had eight points and three blocks.
Southern was on target from the foul line, where it made 16 of 17.
Alcorn struggled to find its offensive rhythm in the second half and finished 16 of 45 from the field (35.6%). Destiny Brown topped the Braves with 12 points while Nakia Cheatman and Sharmanye Finley each scored 11.
"That's been the staple of our team the entire season, just making sure that we defend each and every night," Funchess said. "Defense travels. Some nights you're going to hit shots, some nights you're not going to hit shots, but defense travels."
After a first quarter in which Southern stepped up to keep pace with Alcorn, the defense took center stage in the second.
With the score tied 20-20, Southern held Alcorn to 2-of-10 shooting that allowed the Jaguars to build a double-digit lead.
Reed and Taniyah Lawson each made 3-pointers, and Gourdine had two baskets during the crucial stretch.
Southern grabbed a 36-24 halftime lead.
Southern increased its lead to 51-36 after three quarters and quickly served notice it was still focused in the fourth quarter. One minute in, Lidge converted a three-point play after a possession that was kept alive by three offensive rebounds.
