LAKE CHARLES—McNeese women's basketball will play its third of four straight home games when the Cowgirls return to action Thursday night to host first year program LSU-Alexandria at 7 p.m. in Burton Coliseum.
 
McNeese (1-1) opened its season with an 83-61 win over Louisiana College and is coming off a 75-55 loss to Tulane last Sunday.
 
For the Cowgirls, a lot of players are getting plenty of playing time and head coach Brooks Donald Williams and her staff is trying to find the right chemistry and rotations within their young group. With seven freshmen on the team, one (Frederica Haywood) is in the starting lineup and all have played and average of eight minutes per game in the first two games.
 
"LSU-A is a first year program that has some division I transfers," said head coach Brooks Donald Williams. "We feel they will be a tough team because they have kids that have experience at this level. We have to be ready for them and need to take care of us. We need to get better at things we didn't do well last week."
 
Junior Allison Baggett is the only Cowgirl averaging in double figures with 12.5 ppg. Baggett opened the season with 19 points against Louisiana College while junior point guard Jayln Johnson is coming off a 10-point game against Tulane.
 
Haywood leads the Cowgirls with 9.5 rpg. and has 19 to her credit with 14 coming on the defensive end.
 
LSU-Alexandria (0-3) is an NAIA program that is a member of the Red River Conference. The Bengals are coming off a 77-62 home loss to Dillard last Wednesday.  LSU-A opened the season with a 69-44 road loss to UL-Lafayette on Nov. 5 then dropped another road contest to Louisiana Tech by a 91-36 score on Nov. 8.
 
All Cowgirl games can be heard on the McNeese Radio Network (KJEF/1290 AM) or by live streaming or live stats.  All links are located on the front page of the McNeese Athletics website.
 
The Cowgirls will conclude their four game home stand Sunday with a 2 p.m. game against Southern Miss. Prior to the game, McNeese will retire the jersey of former Cowgirl great and Hall of Famer Pat "Shoney" Jean.