LAKE CHARLES – Kevin Hardy's driving layup with 7.0 seconds to play capped off a classic between arch-rivals McNeese and Lamar Monday night as the Cowboys rallied from an 8-point second half deficit to beat the Cardinals 70-69 while winning their third-consecutive game.
 
Hardy's game-winning goal came just 13 seconds after Lamar's Quan Jones turned the ball over after he dropped it on the sideline with 20.3 seconds to play and after Desharick Guidry pulled the Cowboys to within 1 at 69-68 after hitting two 1-and-1 free throws.
 
"We were playing for the trap on the inbounds pass," said Hardy. "And if they got the ball in, we were going to foul right away. We were running over to foul him (Jones) then saw him drop the ball out of bounds. We knew we had the chance for the win then."
 
Hardy got the ball after the inbound pass and dribbled to the center circle where he ran the clock down to 10 seconds before driving through the lane and laying up the game-winner nearly uncontested.
 
Lamar's Donovan Ross, who's made just 1 of 8 three-point attempts on the season, got off a trey at the buzzer that bumped off the front of the rim.
 
"First off, this is a great win for our team," said McNeese head coach Dave Simmons who moved ahead of Wayne Cusic as the school's third-winningest coach in school history with 125 victories. "We needed a win like this. The kids played extremely hard to get back into the game early in the second half and made the shots we needed to have down the final stretch."
 
A mild-paced first half turned into a three-point contest in the second half after McNeese (13-15, 7-10 SLC) took a 33-32 lead at the break after a Keelan Garret 3-pointer with 2.7 seconds to play.
 
Garrett finished the night with 17 points on 6 of 7 shooting while hitting all four of his 3-pointers. Desharick Guidry improved on his school and conference record double-double total with his 20^th after leading McNeese with 23 points and 13 rebounds, and Hardy ended with 19 points, five assists and five steals.
 
Anthony Holliday led three Lamar players who scored in double-digits with 26 points. Tyran de Lattibeaudiere added 14 points and 11 rebounds while Ross scored 13 points.
 
Lamar (15-14, 9-8) pestered the Cowboys all night with second chance opportunities and points off turnovers, especially in the first half when Lamar allowed McNeese to grab just one offensive board and forced the team into seven turnovers while scoring 11 points from them.
 
McNeese did a better job in the second half taking care of the ball with just two turnovers while improving on its production on the glass.
 
After a free throw by Garrett tied the game at 37-37 with 16:59 to play in the second half, Lamar went on a 9-1 run behind three baskets from de Lattibeaudiere and a 3 by Marcus Owens to build a 46-38 lead with 14:26 to play.
 
Garrett kept the Cowboys within earshot with a couple of layups in trading baskets with Lamar.
 
A Holliday 3 was followed by a Jamaya Burr trey to cut a seven point Lamar lead down to four with 9:46 to play, but Holliday quickly countered with another long range jumper to put the lead back to seven at 54-47 with 9:19 to go.
 
McNeese followed with five straight points off a jumper from Guidry and a three-point play by Hardy to cut the gap to 54-52 but Dontavious Sears widened the gap back to five points with a 3-pointer with 7:57 to play in the game.
 
That's when Garrett and Guidry heated up by behind the arc by hitting three 3s in a two-minute span and a layup by Hardy with 5:57 to play gave the Cowboys their first lead since early in the half to make it 60-59 with 5:57 to play.
 
Lamar took control again behind a Sears 3 and two Holliday free throws but another 3 by Garrett at the 3:47 mark, followed by a free throw and tip-in by Guidry tied the game at 66-66 with 1:50 to play.
 
Holliday went 3-for-4 from the line in the final 1:17 to make it 69-66 and Guidry hit two free throws with 23.4 seconds to play to make it a 69-68 game in favor of Lamar. That set up the final sequence that led to the Cowboys' win.
 
McNeese had its best night shooting in school history from long range after hitting 9 of 13 for 69.2 percent, breaking the previous record of 64.3 percent (9 of 14) set in February of 2014 at UNO. The Cowboy knocked down 52.1 percent (25 of 48) from the field but was just 11 of 20 from the free throw line.
 
Lamar made 46 percent (23 of 50) from the field, 9 of 21 (42.9 percent) from 3-point range and was 14 of 22 for 63.6 percent from the charity stripe. The Cardinals held a 34 to 25 advantage in rebounds.
 
McNeese will look to close out the regular season with a four-game winning streak when it hosts Central Arkansas at 1 on Sunday.