HOUSTON, Texas— McNeese women's basketball had a chance to pick up its first road win of the season but junior Jayln Johnson's three-pointer at the buzzer missed to the left, handing the Cowgirls a 57-55 overtime loss to Rice Friday.
 
"This was a tough loss for our Cowgirls," said head coach Brooks Donald Williams. "Hats off to Rice, it was a hard fought battle between both teams.
 
Johnson led the Cowgirls with 15 points on the night, scoring nine from the free throw line.  Allison Baggett, the Cowgirls' leading scorer was held to seven points and was face-guarded the whole game. 
 
Rice outscored McNeese 7-5 in overtime but the Cowgirls still had one last chance to win the game at the end.  Rice jumped out to a 53-50 lead in the overtime period before McNeese scored their first points on a Jasmyn Carswell layup.
 
Trailing 55-52 with 41 seconds to play, Johnson came through in the clutch as she was fouled while driving to the basket.  Johnson made the layup and converted the free throw to tie the game at 55. The tie was the 11^th of the game.  After several timeouts, Rice's leading scorer Jasmine Goodwine made a jumper in the lane with two seconds left to give Rice a 57-55 lead. 
 
McNeese had one last chance to win the game, but Johnson's three-pointer missed to the left as the clock expired.
 
McNeese (5-5) began the second half on a 5-0 run to take a 26-22 lead two minutes into the second half with all five points coming from Johnson. The game went back and forth the rest of the way. 
 
With the second half winding down, Rice held a 50-47 lead with 2:20 to play but Baggett made the Cowgirls' only three-pointer of the game with 1:17 to play to tie the game at 50.  McNeese's Ann Nwosah blocked a Megan Palmer three-pointer on Rice's next possession but the Cowgirls turned the ball over on their next possession with 20 seconds left in regulation.  A missed jumper by Rice's Christal Porter with five seconds left sent the game in overtime.
 
"We had some positive defensive possessions in big moments tonight and we also had some miscues that we need to learn from. I'm proud of our effort and fight," Williams said.
 
 It took a little while for the Cowgirls to get things going and used their press to do so.  With the Cowgirls leading 14-12 with five minutes left in the half, a jumper by Baggett started a 7-0 run to push the Cowgirl lead to 19-12. Rice answered with a 7-2 run to end the first half.  McNeese went into the locker room with a slim 21-19 lead.
 
McNeese ended the game shooting 33.9 percent from the field on 21 of 62 from the field.  The Cowgirls struggled from behind the arc, making one of 15 but that one by Baggett was very important at the time.
 
The Cowgirls didn't help their cause by turning the ball over 18 times and allowing Rice to score 16 points off those turnovers.
 
McNeese will take a break for the Christmas holiday and will return to action on Dec. 29 to host Texas Southern.