NEW ORLEANS – Stephen Ugochukwu tied a career-high with 19 points while grabbing a career-best 14 rebounds to lead McNeese to a 70-63 win over Tulane here Monday night, notching the team's win over a Division I opponent this season.
 
The Cowboys (3-7) also picked up their first non-conference Division I win since beating Mississippi State back on Dec. 30, 2014. It's also the first guarantee game win since that same victory over the Bulldogs.
 
McNeese turned to a zone defense midway through the first half after the Green Wave (3-8) built a 20-11 lead with 12 minutes to play. From that point on, McNeese outscored Tulane 25-10 to take a 36-30 lead into the half.
 
Ugochukwu, playing in his third game back since missing three full games due to injury, scored 12 of his game-high 19 points in the second half behind 6 of 7 shooting.
 
"I've said many times how much Stephen Ugochukwu means to our team," said head coach Dave Simmons. "He did what he did while playing 38 minutes. He can bring that to a game. He was an answer for everything they did on the other end."
 
Ugochukwu added two blocked shots and two steals to his total, and in his three games back, is averaging 12 points and just under 12 rebounds a game.
 
"This was a good team win tonight," said Simmons. "The kids are working really hard. We're getting close. We let one get away from us at home (versus North Carolina Central)."
 
When Ugochukwu wasn't creating havoc for the Green Wave on the offensive end, junior transfer Howard Thomas picked up the slack by using his big frame to push his way into the lane and to help him come away with a McNeese career-best 10 points.
 
"We knew Howard could get in there and have his way," said Simmons. "He did what we needed him to do against their big guy."
 
After taking a 36-30 lead into the half, McNeese knocked down 8 of its first 10 shots in the second half and built an 11-point lead after a Ugochukwu jumper to make it 51-40 with 13:41 to play.
 
The lead grew to 12 points at 56-44 after James Harvey snapped out of his 3-point drought with a trey with 10:50 to play.
 
Tulane, who got a game-high 21 points from Melvin Frazier and 14 from Ryan Smith, took advantage of missed free throws by the Cowboys to cut the margin to six points at 61-55 with 4:56 to play.
 
The Cowboys hit just 11 of 21 from the charity stripe on the night.
 
"It wouldn't have been as close if we would've made our free throws," said Simmons. "We left 10 points on the court and maybe 11 by missing the front end of a 1-and-1. But it was a good victory for us especially when you can win one of these games."
 
Although McNeese missed 10 free throws, it knocked them down when needed, hitting its final seven from the line.
 
Jarren Greenwood scored 14 points on the night and hit the final four free throws to ice the game for the Cowboys.
 
As a team, McNeese hit 47 percent from the field (27 of 58) and was 5 of 18 for 28 percent from 3-point range.
 
Tulane shot 37 percent (19 of 52) for the game and was 6 of 22 from long range.
 
The Green Wave made 8 of their first 13 shots from the field to build a 20-11 lead with 12:13 to play in the first half. In that time they connected on three consecutive layups within a minute span to build their largest lead of the game.
 
At that point, McNeese turned to a zone defense and the Green Wave went 4 for 16 the rest of the half as the Cowboys put together a 15-5 run to take their first lead of the game at 26-25 with 5:16 to play.
 
Kalob Ledoux, who finished with nine points, led the charge by hitting three 3-point goals while Greenwood's jumper with 3:22 to play broke a 28-28 tied and started an 8-0 run for McNeese to give it a lead it wouldn't relinquish.
 
The Cowboys will return to action on Thursday when they visit North Carolina State in the final game before starting Southland Conference action on Dec. 31 at Northwestern State.