LAKE CHARLES – Poor free throw shooting in Southland Conference play has been all too familiar for the McNeese Cowboys. Things didn't change any on Tuesday night against Abilene Christian as the Cowboys misfired on 19 of 36 attempts.
 
Luckily on this night, the only difference between the amount of missed free throws to more made would've been a blowout as the Cowboys picked up their first conference win of the season by way of a 63-56 score.
 
The attention was primarily on the free throw shooting – both teams combined to miss 28 total – but the story of the game was the suffocating defense the Cowboys played against the up-tempo, high-octane Wildcat offense.
 
McNeese (7-9, 1-4 SLC) held ACU to just 5 of 23 (21.7 percent) shooting in the first half and 32.1 percent (17 of 53) for the game. In addition, the Cowboys smothered Parker Wentz, ACU's leading scorer with 13.9 points per game, to just five points, his second-lowest output of the season.
 
"I thought we did a really good job defensively," said head coach Dave Simmons. "We knew they had a good team and run a very up tempo offense. We felt like we needed to take Wentz out of the game and thought we did that.
 
"We had the right guys at the free throw line, especially late," he said. "At some point it does become mental but that's part of the game. Bottom line is we got the win and we needed that."
 
Desharick Guidry notched his 12^th double-double of the season with a game-high 21 points while tying a career-best with 16 rebounds. Kevin Hardy added 19 points and eight rebounds while Jamaya Burr scored 11.
 
The Cowboys connected on 22 of 56 from the field for 39 percent and was just 2 of 20 for 10 percent from long range. Keelan Garrett, the Cowboys' top three-point shooter, missed on all three of his attempts from behind the arc but played with an injured right shoulder.
 
McNeese led 27-19 at the half as neither team seemed to be in any hurry to score points.
 
The Cowboys held ACU (9-9, 3-2) scoreless through the first 4:22 of the game before LaDarrien Williams hit a three-pointer at that mark. But since the Cowboys weren't scoring either, ACU held a 3-2 lead after that score.
 
The Wildcats never led by more than four points (that coming at 6-2) and after leading 14-13 following Williams' second trey of the night with 6:54 to play, the Cowboys put together a 13-4 run to close out the half.
 
Hardy gave the Cowboys a 10-point lead right out of the gate in the second half with a layup that made it 29-19 but ACU answered with a 7-0 run to cut the gap to 29-26. McNeese never relinquished the lead in the second half but was threatened several times, even after it went up by 14 after a Hardy dunk with 11:02 to play to make it 49-35 to cap an 11-1 run.
 
The Wildcats patiently closed the gap and cut the lead to 4 following a 3-pointer by Austin Cooke to make it 49-45 with 7:01 to play but the Cowboys answered with a free throw by Guidry followed by a steal by Guidry which led to a fastbreak layup by Burr to make it a 7-point game with 5:42 to play.
 
McNeese then missed eight straight free throws but made up for it on the defensive end by allowing the Wildcats to just three missed shots and three turnovers in that three minute span. Austin Lewis put a stamp on the game with a two-handed slam off a pass from Burr, then Burr put the icing on the cake with a fast break layup with 39 seconds to play to make it 61-54.
 
One other bucket by ACU and a couple of free throws by Matthew Moss and Hardy capped the scoring.
 
Harrison Hawkins led the Wildcats with 12 points and Williams added 11. McNeese held a 46-39 advantage in the rebounding department.
 
Lewis added three blocks to give him 102 in his career to become the eighth player in school history to reach the century mark.
 
The Cowboys will hit the road once again on Saturday when they visit Northwestern State then will play at Incarnate Word on Monday.