LAKE CHARLES--  McNeese women's basketball team fought off a pesky Louisiana College team Tuesday night and came away with a 73-59 win to improve to 5-1 on the season. The loss drops the Wildcats to 0-3 on the season.
 
"Hats off to Louisiana College," said head coach Brooks Donald Williams. "We knew they would be tough and they are very well coached. They had a few local kids and we knew they would feed off that if they got going," Williams said.
 
Allison Baggett led all players with 17 points on 7-of-14 from the field. Sophomore Jasmyn Carswell picked up her first career double-double with 10 points and a career high 13 boards. It's the second game in less than a week Carswell betters her career high in rebounds. She improved her field goal shooting percent by making 5-of-6 from the field and picked up four blocks. Jayln Johnson dished out a game high six assists along with four steals and scored nine points.
 
The score isn't indicative of how close the game was through the first three quarters. McNeese took its first double digit lead on two free throws by Baggett to start the fourth quarter. It was the spark off the bench from junior Amber Donnes and defensive stops that helped McNeese take its largest lead of 15 points with 3:32 to play. Donnes scored on a fast break layup off a rebound by Rogers for a 71-56.  Donnes scored nine of her 14 points in the fourth quarter. She ended the game 6-of-9 from the field including two three-pointers.
 
The lead changed eight times in the first two quarters and the Cowgirls went into the half with a 40-34 lead. The Wildcats held a brief lead midway through the first period but a Hannah Cupit 3-point play gave the Cowgirls a 14-13 lead. The Wildcats tied the game 20 all on a three-pointer by Cloie Broussard on the first play of the second quarter then a jumper by Taylor Payne gave Louisiana College their last lead of the game at 22-20.
 
"I'm proud of our kids, these are tough games to play. I think our group at the end of the game defended so well. They did a great job of kind of separating us a little bit and we got going in our transition game and it was because of stops," said Williams.
 
The Cowgirls will travel to Tulane on Sunday, Dec. 6 for a 2 p.m. game and will return home next Wednesday to host Loyola (New Orleans) in a 7 p.m. game.