LAKE CHARLES – McNeese put together perhaps its best 40 minutes of action on Saturday against a more experienced North Carolina Central team that has a win over Missouri and a close loss to LSU, but after holding a 3-point lead early in the second half, the Cowboys slipped and allowed the Eagles to go a 21-5 run over a nine minute span en route to a 74-66 loss.
 
After hitting 13 of 19 shots in the first half to take a 36-35 lead at the break, McNeese (2-7) made just 5 of its first 23 shots through the first 12 minutes of the second half as NCCU (7-5) took advantage of the lull.
 
"I thought we played hard and put together the best minutes we've had all year," said head coach Dave Simmons. "But we came out in the second half and just went into a drought. You can't do that against a good team and they have a good team."
 
The Cowboys woke up minutes later and made a game out of it late after a couple of free throws by Stephen Ugochukwu cut the margin to 68-60 with 2:14 left. Kalob Ledoux followed with a couple of 3-point goals in a span of a minute, the latter one to cut the margin to 72-66 with 55 seconds to play but NCCU's Patrick Cole ended the threat with a layup with 45 seconds to play to put the Eagles up by 8.
 
Ledoux was one of three Cowboys to score in double-digits with 11 points. Jarren Greenwood led the way with 15 and Jamaya Burr added 13. Ugochukwu tied a career-high with 11 rebounds, his second consecutive double-digit rebound game.
 
Burr added three assists to hit the 300 career assist milestone and becoming the 11^th player in school history to achieve the feat.
 
Cole led the Eagles with 21 points to match his season average while Dajuan Graf scored 12 to go along with six assists.
 
McNeese was handicapped by turnovers throughout the game but especially in the first half when it committed 12 miscues that led to 13 NCCU points.
 
"Turnovers really killed us today," said Simmons as the Cowboys turned it over a season-high 20 times for the game. "There were at least 4-5 miscues we committed without being forced."
 
McNeese shot 42 percent for the game after hitting 24 of 57 from the field but was just 4 of 15 from 3-point range and made 14 of 21 at the free throw line.
 
NCCU connected on 26 of 66 for 39 percent and 3 of 14 from long range sinking 19 of 22 at the charity stripe.
 
The Eagles held a 41-38 advantage in rebounds and scored 15 second chance points while McNeese scored 7.
 
The Cowboys will be back in action on Monday night when they visit Tulane then will head to the east coast for a Thursday night game at North Carolina State.