LAKE CHARLES—McNeese women's basketball looked like a totally different team Thursday night in its 98-77 Southland Conference win over second place Lamar than the one that played these same Cardinals five days ago in Beaumont.
 
McNeese (16-11, 10-6 SLC) clinched a spot in the Southland Conference tournament that will be held in Katy, Texas in two weeks.  The 98 points scored by the Cowgirls are the second most points ever scored against Lamar. McNeese scored 106 points in a 106-65 win over Lamar in 1981.
 
The Cowgirls were hitting on all cylinders Thursday night, ending the game shooting 50.8 percent from the field (31-61) and 53.3 percent from three-point range (8 of 15) and 84.8 percent from the free throw line (28-33).  The Cowgirls also dominated the boards by a 52-23 margin. McNeese held a 33-10 rebound margin at the half.
 
McNeese used double figure scoring by four players to pick up the win. Jayln Johnson scored a game high 25. Johnson was 6 of 8 from the field and 12 of 15 from the free throw line to go along with seven assists. Allison Baggett pitched in 24, Amber Donnes ended the game with 19 and Talisa Boyd recorded her sixth career double-double with a career high 15 points to go along with 12 rebounds.
 
The contest started out just like in Beaumont, instead of McNeese scoring the first four points tonight, Lamar scored the first four points in the first 38 second of the game.
 
Amber Donnes took matters into her own hands and scored the Cowgirls first five points on a jumper and then her first of five three-pointers of the game to give McNeese a 5-4 lead. 
 
Lamar took its last lead of the game on a trey by JaMeisha Edwards with 16:51 left in the first half. From this point on, McNeese couldn't be stopped as the Cowgirls took a double digit lead (30-19) with 11:20 left in the half and held its largest lead of the game of 24 points with 3:21 left in the half.
 
The Cowgirls held a 55-35 halftime lead, which is the largest half time lead in conference, play for the Cowgirls this season and it's the second largest halftime lead of the season. McNeese lead Centenary by 25 at the half on Dec. 10.
 
Lamar attempted a comeback and came out the second half on a 9-2 run to cut the lead to 14 but a jumper by Baggett kick started the Cowgirls' offense in the second half.  Lamar would get as close as 12 points before McNeese outscored the Cardinals 10-2 over the next three minutes to put the Cowgirls up by 21. McNeese held a 20-point lead for most of the remainder of the game and nearly hit the century mark for the second time this season
 
McNeese will host Nicholls Saturday at 12:15 in a game that will be televised on ESPN3