Box Score NACOGDOCHES – For 17 minutes, McNeese held its own with the three-time defending Southland Conference champion and preseason favorite Stephen F. Austin. But then it appeared the young Cowboys woke the beast as SFA scored the final nine points of the half and went on to cruise to an 86-57 win in the league opener for both teams.
 
The loss dropped McNeese to 2-9 on the season while SFA snapped a two-game losing streak to improve to 8-5 while winning its 30^th straight conference home game.
 
"I thought we did some good things early," said head coach Dave Simmons. "We rebounded well in the first half. Looking at the final stats, we have to do a lot better job rebounding the ball to have a chance."
 
The Cowboys were outrebounded by a 47-25 margin for the game, including 22-6 in the second half. But in defense of the low rebounding number in the final 20 minutes, SFA only missed 13 shots after hitting 20 of 33 from the field.
 
Jamaya Burr led three Cowboys who scored in double-figures with 13 points while James Harvey added a career-best 12 and Lance Potier 10. Burr grabbed a career-best eight rebounds in the game.
 
SFA's Demetrius Floyd led the Jacks with 18 points followed by Clide Geffrard with 14 and Ty Charles 11. Team leading scorer and reigning conference player of the year Thomas Walkup was held to nine points, seven below his season average, but made up for it with 12 rebounds and eight assists.
 
"That's what good players do," said Simmons. "When you're not playing well in one area of your game, you pick it up in other areas."
 
McNeese trailed 27-22 with 3:18 to play in the first half when SFA rolled off nine straight points to build a 36-22 advantage at the break. The Lumberjacks quickly built their lead to 25 points at 50-25 after a 14-0 run following a half-opening three by Potier cut the margin to 36-25.
 
The Cowboys never got the deficit under 20 points the rest of the way as the Jacks were able to keep its margin with their strong second half shooting.
 
McNeese didn't shoot poorly after hitting 20 of 50 for 40 percent for the game, including 11 of 24 for 46 percent in the second half. But the Cowboys hit 8 of 18 from long range and was just 9 of 16 at the free throw line.
 
"To beat a team like SFA you have to hit your free throws," said Simmons. "We went 1 for 5 in the first half. Had we made those, we're right there."
 
The Cowboys got some good minutes from its true freshmen. Three different times in the second half McNeese had three of them on the floor at the same time in Harvey, Jarren Greenwood and AJ Brown. The trio accounted for just four of the team's 16 turnovers and just two in the second half while playing a combined 64 minutes.
 
"They've earned the right to play more minutes," said Simmons. "We have a talented group of guys that play hard."
 
McNeese will return to action on Tuesday night when it visits Houston Baptist, a 99-73 winner at Northwestern State on Saturday.