The Southern men's basketball team has been at the top of the Southwestern Athletic Conference standings all season, a perch that has made the Jaguars a target for teams looking to put a feather in their caps.

It's a coveted spot that has provided challenges that Southern has met at times. There also have been games like Thursday's contest at the F.G. Clark Activity Center, when the Jaguars came up short 66-65 against Alabama State.

Despite the loss, Southern (19-11, 14-3) already has clinched at least a share of the SWAC regular-season title and the No. 1 seed in next week's conference tournament. Jaguars coach Kevin Johnson said the team still needs to stay focused on its remaining goals for the season.

"We have a conference regular-season title, but now it's about being better because that was only a part of our goal," Johnson said. "The next part is the most difficult part and in order to be ready for that, when you get an opportunity, you have to improve. Its unfortunate that we didn't do that (against Alabama State)."

Southern gets one more chance to show improvement when it hosts Alabama A&M (10-20, 6-11) on Saturday in the regular-season finale at 5:30 p.m. The Jaguars won the first meeting 81-68 in Huntsville, Alabama, on Feb. 8.

Joe Manning led Southern with 22 points in that game, and the Jaguars held the Bulldogs to 39% shooting from the field.

If recent trends are an indicator, Alabama A&M may improve on its shooting numbers. During Southern's two-game trip to Florida last week, Bethune-Cookman shot 57% in the first half of a 70-69 win while Florida A&M connected on 64% in the second half before falling 73-70 to the Jaguars.

Alabama State shot 50% in the first half Thursday and burned the nets from 3-point range, where it made 10 of 22 shots.

"Everybody plays Southern tough," Johnson said. "Teams will play down to competition at times, but when they play us its like the Super Bowl. That's what we expect every time out, and it won't be any different (Saturday) with A&M."