HATTIESBURG — To most teams, 52 points would be considered a banner offensive night.

Not Southern Miss.

Following Saturday’s 52-0 victory over Alcorn State in the opener for both clubs, Southern Miss coach Larry Fedora felt the Golden Eagles could have played a better offensive game.

“We left a lot of plays and a lot of points on the field,” Fedora said. “I hope we make a lot of improvement from this week to next week.”

Even so, he was happy with the performance of quarterback Austin Davis, who was a coolly efficient 19-of-25 passing for 217 yards and three first-half scores.

“What Austin’s done is he’s doing a better job managing the game this year,” Fedora said. “He’s not a freshman. He’s not flustered. He read the coverage and put the ball where it should go.”

Fedora held out wide receiver DeAndre Brown, who was cleared to practice last week, but is still trying to work himself back into game condition.

Consequently, Davis spread the ball around to nine different receivers. Gerald Baptiste caught four passes for 32 yards and two scores. Freddie Parham had four grabs for 51 yards.

Running-wise, all of the Southern Miss tailbacks got a chance to get some carries behind Damion Fletcher, who rushed 19 times for 126 yard. Catching Fedora’s eye was the play of Tracey Lampley, who rushed seven times for 66 yards, all in the fourth quarter.

With the Golden Eagles starting Conference USA play on Saturday against Central Florida at The Rock, the offense will likely need contributions from all of the running backs.

“He’s got a lot of ability,” Fedora said. “He got winded real fast. That adrenaline ate up all of his energy.”

Defensively, it was a tale of two halves. The Braves (0-1) were able to move the ball effectively in the first half and the coaching staff was anything but pleased.

However, Southern Miss finished strong, allowing only 62 yards rushing with two sacks and two interceptions of Alcorn quarterback Timothy Buckley.

“They got a rear-end chewing at halftime because they’d given up nine first downs, but they had shut them out,” Fedora said. “Like we told them, we expect more. We gave up too many big plays.”

On the Alcorn side, coach Earnest Collins Jr. made his debut under less-than-ideal circumstances. But he was happy with the level of fight he saw in his charges.

“You never want to come up and get beat 52-0, but at the same time, when your kids are in a dog fight, you’re going to find out who’s going to quit on you and who’s going to keep playing,” Collins said.

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Contact Steve Wilson at swilson@vicksburgpost.com