LAKE CHARLES—McNeese women's basketball team came back from a 13-point deficit Monday night to defeat Houston Baptist 60-57 to remain undefeated in Southland Conference action.
 
"I'm really proud of this win because it wasn't a pretty one," head coach Brooks Donald Williams said. "We had to really work for it. Our girls had to gut this one out, and they certainly did."
 
Junior Jayln Johnson continued her streak of scoring in double figures to six games and ran her consecutive free throws streak to 23 in the last three games. Johnson was perfect from the charity stripe in all six attempts.
 
McNeese (8-5, 2-0 SLC) trailed Houston Baptist for all but the final 43 seconds of the game when the Cowgirls took their second lead of the game after taking a one-point lead, one minute into the game.
 
With the Cowgirls trailing 52-50 with 2:13 left, freshman Mercedes Rogers' layup tied the game at 52 all. HBU retook the lead on the next possession on a Shanice Steenholdt layup but McNeese's Amber Donnes hit her only trey of the game to give McNeese a 55-54 lead, only the second Cowgirl lead of the game. Johnson made two free throws and Allison Baggett made the first of two free throws to give the Cowgirls its largest lead of the game 58-54 with 19 seconds to play. 
 
HBU didn't give up as they cut the lead to one point on a three-pointer by Meghan Shank with 10 seconds left.  Johnson was fouled again and once again she made good on her two freebies with nine seconds left to seal the win for McNeese.  HBU had two attempts to tie the game in the final three seconds but Rachel Arthur and Tayler Jefferson missed on their three-point attempts.
 
Houston Baptist (6-7, 0-2 SLC) jumped out to a 10-3 lead in the first five minutes of the game and held a double-digit lead for most of the half.  HBU lead 31-24 at the half.  The Cowgirls struggled from the field in the first half while HBU shot lights out to begin the game.  The Huskies cooled off a little but ended the half shooting 50 percent from the field while the Cowgirls shot 27.3 percent from the field.
 
McNeese used its full-court pressure to fight their way back into the game and got 25 points from its bench.  The Cowgirls turned the tables in the second half, holding HBU to a 33.3 field goal percent.
 
The Cowgirls will travel to Texas A&M-Corpus Christ this Saturday for its first Southland Conference road contest of the year.