LAKE CHARLES – McNeese basketball will face another tough test on Saturday when the Cowboys host North Carolina Central at 2 p.m. at the Burton Complex.
 
McNeese (2-6) is coming off a 92-56 loss to SMU on Wednesday night while NCCU (6-5) dropped a hard-fought, 70-66 contest at LSU on the same night. In that game, the Eagles led the Tigers by 7 points at the half after leading by as many as 13 early on. NCCU kept the lead until midway through the second half when LSU took over for good.
 
"This is a really good ball team coming in here Saturday," said McNeese coach Dave Simmons. "I'm glad we're going to be back at home but we're going to have to play extremely well against them."
 
McNeese showed flashes of the kind of team it can be against SMU despite the 36-point loss.
 
The Cowboys got down early and by as many as 24 point with 6 ½ minutes to play in the first half. But McNeese battled and cut the margin to 17 points in the second half and was only outscored by 12 points by the Mustangs in the final 26 minutes of the game.
 
A big jolt to the club was the return of junior forward Stephen Ugochukwu who has missed all of the last three games and most of a fourth due to a hamstring injury he suffered at the start of the Memphis game.
 
Ugochukwu battled his way to a team-high 10 rebounds, also tying a career-high, and was one point shy of recording his second career double-double. Six of those boards came off the offensive glass.
 
"Having him back in the lineup is huge," said Simmons. "He works extremely hard and gives us a presence under the goal."
 
The Eagles will enter Saturday's game having dropped two straight and 3 of 4, but they have a couple of quality wins at Missouri (62-52) and LIU Brooklyn (79-56) with close losses at Ohio State (69-63) and LSU.
 
NCCU has two players averaging double-figures in scoring, led by senior guard Patrick Cole's 20.8 points per game which ranks him 35^th in the nation.
 
"They have some really good ball players," said Simmons. "They shoot the ball well and can move it around."
 
Senior Dajuan Graf is averaging 12.6 points a game as the only other double-figure scorer on the team.
 
The Eagles are expecting to start five seniors in the lineup.
 
"A very experience club," said Simmons.
 
McNeese, on the other hand, has a true freshman and two sophomores ranking 2-4 on the team in scoring.
 
Senior Jamaya Burr leads the way with 12.1 points a game fillowed by freshman Kalob Ledoux (11.0) who tied a career-high with 16 points at SMU in the last outing. Sophomore Jarren Greenwood is sinking 10.5 points per game but has been held to 3 points in each of the last two outings. And sophomore James Harvey has dipped under the double-digit mark (9.6) following a 6-point outing at SMU.
 
Saturday's game will be the first meeting against the Eagles.
 
The game will be broadcast live on ROOT Sports Southwest which is not carried on cable in Lake Charles.
 
Fans are encouraged to bring an unwrapped toy to donate for Toys For Tots and Santa Claus will be in attendance.