LAKE CHARLES – McNeese's starting trio of
Kevin Hardy,
Desharick Guidry, and
Keelan Garrett – all natives of Lake Charles – are content on making the locals believe in this Cowboys basketball team.
The squad is 5-3 on the season and a perfect 5-0 in "The Burt," McNeese's home arena Burton Coliseum. One of those wins came against defending Sun Belt Champion and arch-rival Louisiana-Lafayette and a loss was at state flagship LSU in a game the Cowboys led in the second half and had numerous opportunities to pull of an upset.
The trio will attempt to gain the hearts of more fans in the next three days when the Cowboys host two of the better mid-major teams in the country – Toledo at 1 p.m. on Saturday and Monday a 7 against Central Michigan.
Both teams are members of the Mid-American Conference (MAC) and Toledo is the defending MAC champion and returns four starters off of a team that won 27 games last year.
"We're excited about these two games," said Guidry. "We're playing with a lot of confidence right now. Playing these two at home in what we're hoping are some great crowds, is a definite advantage for us."
"We like to put on a show and feel like we have the athletes to excite the crowd," said Hardy who leads the team with 18 dunks, many of those that belong on a highlight reel. "It's special for us to be playing in Burton and in front of our hometown fans. We have some great fans."
McNeese and Toledo will tie up for the third time in the series with the Rockets winning the last two. The two teams first played just three years ago in the first round of the CollegeInsider.com Tournament with Toledo pulling away for a 76-63 win. McNeese trailed by just two points at the half in that game before the Rockets used an 11-0 run midway through the second half to take the win.
A year later, Toledo won by the same margin of 13 points in a 79-66 win in a game that was pretty much decided in the first half. Guidry, Hardy, and Garrett remember that game well.
"The guys they have starting for them now are pretty much the ones that were on the bench that game," said Guidry. "Now it's our time to get the win in front of our fans."
Guidry leads the Cowboys in scoring (17.8 ppg) and rebounding (12.4 rpg). He's tops in the league and ranked second in the NCAA in rebounding. He's recorded seven consecutive double-doubles, also tops in the league and nation.
Hardy is averaging 10.1 points and 6.9 rebounds per game and is the league leader while ranking third in the nation with 3.5 steals per game. Garrett is also averaging 10.1 points a game and is the team's top three-point shooter at 30 percent.
Toledo (6-4 and ranked No. 20 in this week's Mid-Major Top 25 poll) has four players averaging double-figures in scoring, led by Julius Brown with 16 points a game.
The Rockets have won four straight games and are coming off an 83-57 win over Robert Morris in their last outing.
WORTH NOTING:Guidry, Hardy and Garrett are the first trio from Lake Charles to start for the Cowboys since 1974 when Edmund Lawrence, David Wallace and Bertel Reder started for the Pokes.
