HAMMOND – McNeese State took advantage of its brief home outing with a 68-61 win over New Orleans on Saturday. Now the Cowboys will look to keep the momentum going but most do so with their next three games coming on the road, beginning Monday night at Southeastern Louisiana as they reach the mid-point of the Southland Conference season.
Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. at SLU's University Center. The game will air live on Cajun Radio (1470/1290 AM) or CajunRadio.com.
The Cowboys (8-11, 2-6 SLC) are a half game behind the Lions (5-15, 2-5) in the league standings and tied with Nicholls (5-13, 2-6) and UNO (6-11, 2-6), the Pokes two opponents following SLU.
On Saturday, McNeese built a 19-point second half lead on the Privateers then had to hold off a late surge to hang on for the win. It was a much different outcome than what happened five days earlier at UIW where the Cowboys were up 13 points with seven minutes to go and fell by 2.
"Had we lost (against UNO), I was going to be like Elvis and just leave the building," said head coach
Dave Simmons who coached McNeese to its 1,000
th all-time win on Saturday.
Jamaya Burr scored a career-high 16 points to pace four Cowboys who scored in double-figures.
Desharick Guidry notched his 13
th double-double of the season after a 15 point, 11 rebound outing while
Keelan Garrett scored 13 and
Kevin Hardy 10.
The Cowboys have shown signs the last three games of getting out of their funk with some decent shooting from the field. Despite going 1-2 in the last three contests, the Cowboys have knocked down 48 percent of their shots (84 of 174) and 21 of 50 for 42 percent from 3-point range.
A thorn in the side most of the season has come from the free throw line but the Cowboys hit 11 of 14 against UNO and two games prior, hit 8 of 10 at Northwestern State.
The Lions have dropped their last three games including an 88-73 setback to Northwestern State on Saturday, and have lost their last three league games at home.
SLU is led in scoring by Zay Jackson's 16.6 average followed by Joshua Filmore's 12.8 mark.
The two teams split the season series last year with McNeese winning 69-60 at home and the Lions winning 62-53 in Hammond.
