LAKE CHARLES – Winners of two of its last three games, the McNeese Cowboys will try again on Monday night to put together its first winning streak of the season when it hosts the Incarnate Word Cardinals in Southland Conference basketball action at 7 p.m. in Burton Coliseum.
 
The Cowboys (4-12, 2-4 SLC) are coming off a thrilling 75-74 win over Northwestern State in a game that saw sophomore forward Stephen Ugochukwu step up and take over in the second half where he scored 15 of his career-high 19 points. His offensive rebound and tip-in with 13 seconds to play gave the Cowboys a 1-point lead while his defensive rebound with three ticks left sealed the game.
 
Ugochukwu was just a portion of the reason the Cowboys won on Saturday.
 
With his 21 points, true freshman James Harvey scored more than 20 for the second time in three games (he had 23 in a win over Sam Houston State) and becoming the first Cowboy true freshman to score 20 or more in multiple games in a season since Tierre Brown did it five times in 1998.
 
And despite being held to 8 points, the second-lowest total on the season, junior point guard Jamaya Burr dished out a season-best six assists while turning it over just two times in 37 minutes of action.
 
Austin Lewis played a big part on Saturday with nine rebounds, the second-most on the season for the senior. Fellow senior Craig McFerrin tied a season-high with 13 rebounds hauled in and before he got knocked out of the game late in the first half with a cut to his head, freshman Jarren Greenwood scored 8 points with an assist in 15 minutes of action.
 
"It was a total team effort," said head coach Dave Simmons of the Cowboys' play on Saturday. "Stephen stepped it up in that game and played like he did at Central Michigan (16 points, 7 rebounds). I told the team it may be somebody else step it up on Monday."
 
Burr will go into Monday night's game as the team's only player scoring multiple points in a game at 14.6. McFerrin is averaging 9.3 points and a team-high 7.6 rebounds per game.
 
Harvey has upped his scoring average to 7.4 for the season but is sinking 13.5 points in conference games and averaging 41 percent from 3-point range (17 for 42). His 17 threes in Southland games only ranks as the fourth-most made in the conference.
 
Incarnate Word (9-7, 4-1) has won four straight games and coming off a 74-60 win over Abilene Christian on Saturday. The Cardinals have a couple of nice Division I wins outside of league play – 73-51 at St. John's and 82-76 at Rice. UIW's lone loss in the league was by a 78-72 score against Sam Houston State to open Southland play.
 
UIW is led in scoring by senior Kyle Hittle whose 16.2 average ranks fifth in the league.
 
After suffering his injury on Saturday, Greenwood's status for Monday night is listed as questionable.