LAKE CHARLES – If this past week of practice is any indication on how the McNeese Cowboys will play on Saturday against Sam Houston State, the Bearkats better be ready for a team that's on the edge of breaking out.
"This is probably the best week of practice we've had all season," said head coach Dave Simmons whose team will enter the Southland Conference game 2-11 overall and 0-3 in league play. "We're close and we keep getting better every game."
That is true on both accounts even though the Cowboys are riding a four-game losing streak as SHSU (9-8, 4-0 SLC) has won four straight. McNeese will look to turn the tides on Saturday at Burton Coliseum following a women's game between the two teams beginning at 1.
Sam Houston State marks the end of a brutal 4-game start to a conference slate that has all four opponents combining for a 14-0 league record.
"It's definitely been a tough schedule to start the season," said Simmons. "But we've also been in the games. Even at Stephen F. Austin, we're in it late in the first half until we go on a drought and they open it up before the half, then come out on fire in the second half.
"There are a couple of key areas that we've worked on that need to be fixed and I think we tackled that issue so hopefully we'll see improvements on Saturday."
Those areas are turnovers and scoring droughts.
McNeese is last in the league in turnover margin (-3.2) and 7th with 14.2 turnovers committed per game. Those numbers greatly inflate when using conference games only – turnover margin falling to -6.7 while turnovers committed per game is 17.0.
Those two areas greatly hurt the Cowboys in their last two games – at Houston Baptist and home against A&M-Corpus Christi.
Against AMCC, McNeese saw a 1-point deficit (45-44) with 13:49 to play in the second half balloon to a 14-point margin at 62-48 after the Cowboys went on a 0-for-6 drought and turned it over three times in a span of 7:51.
At HBU, McNeese led 25-24 with 3:14 to play in the half but went scoreless the rest of the way while the Huskies scored eight straight to carry a 7-point lead into the break. HBU opened up the second half by scoring four straight to widen the gap to 11 points. The total scoring drought for McNeese covering both halves was 5:03.
But despite those gaps with no scoring and the team falling behind by double-digits, the team fought back and had chances to win late in both games.
"We've got a lot of fight in us," said Simmons. "We have a lot of talented kids that compete really hard. We're very close to getting over that hump."
Junior guard Jamaya Burr has been the most consistent scorer on the team and will go into Saturday's game with a team-high 15.0 ppg average. He's scored double-digits in six straight games and in all but one game on the season.
Two true freshmen, guards Jarren Greenwood and James Harvey, have seen their minutes increase tremendously over the last few games.
Greenwood, who is third on the team in scoring (8.5) while leading the team with 20 three-point goals made, is second on the squad with an average of 28.5 minutes per game. He played a career-high 36 minutes and scored 14 points against AMCC in the last outing and is averaging 33 minutes and 10.3 points a contest over the last four games.
Harvey is averaging 18 minutes over the last three games, an 8-minute increase from what he average prior to conference play. In three league games, he's averaging 7.7 points per game and has made 5 of 17 from three-point range.
The Bearkats are one of four unbeaten teams still remaining in conference play and have not lost since a 69-64 setback to North Texas on Dec. 29. They are led in scoring by Aurimas Majauskas (14.1) and Dakarai Henderson (13.9).
