HAMMOND—McNeese women's basketball bounced back from its loss on Saturday with an 83-74 road win Wednesday at Southeastern Louisiana. The win improves the Cowgirls to 16-8 overall and 8-4 in the Southland Conference. The loss drops SE La. to 3-19 and 2-9 in the SLC.
 
"Hats off to Southeastern La. for playing to the end. I think they are extremely underrated with their record," said head coach Brooks Donald Williams. "I thought there was a time during the game where we could have really put them away and they didn't allow that to happen."
 
McNeese placed five players in double figures and were led by Allison Baggett's 18 points. Keara Hudnall and Jayln Johnson both scored 16 apiece while Victoria Rachal chipped in 13. Jasmyn Carswell also scored in double figures with 11.
 
McNeese held off a late Southeastern La. rally and scored their final four points from the free throw line to hold on for the victory.
 
The Cowgirls shot 42.7 percent from the field on 32 of 75 attempts and 68.8 percent from the free throw line. The Cowgirls ended the game making 11 of 16 free throws. McNeese also outrebounded the Lady Lions 50-39. Hudnall tied her career high that she set against Nicholls last Saturday. Hudnall and Jasmyn Carswell both led McNeese with eight rebounds apiece, Mercedes Rogers ended the game with seven rebounds.
 
In the second half, McNeese held as much as an 18-point lead early in the fourth quarter. With McNeese leading 67-49 a less than a minute into the fourth quarter, Southeastern La. went on a 15-8 run to cut the Cowgirl lead to nine with 2:23 to play. McNeese upped its lead back to 10 points (81-71) on two free throws by Johnson with 32 seconds to play.
 
The Cowgirls were called for 29 fouls including 14 in the first half. Three Cowgirl starters (Frederica Haywood, Carswell, Johnson) ended up fouling out. Southeastern La. was tagged for 26 fouls.
 
"We will have to look at what we are doing and are going to have to clean it up a little bit. I thought our kids handled it well and stepped up when their name was called at different times in the game," Williams said.
 
 McNeese got off to a slow start and trailed by as much as five points (12-7), five minutes into the game. The Cowgirls' first five points of the game came from Rachal. The Cowgirls went on a 5-0 run off a three-pointer by Johnson and a jumper by Cynthia Rivas to tie the game at 12. After a layup by SE La., Johnson drained another three for the Cowgirls' first lead of the game. The teams traded baskets the rest of the quarter and were tied at 17 apiece at the end of the first quarter.
 
Carswell opened the second quarter up with a jumper and after SE La. tied the game again, McNeese took the lead for good on a three-pointer by Baggett, her first points of the game, three minutes into the quarter. The Cowgirls built as a seven point lead twice in the game and went into the locker room with a 40-30 lead behind 10 first half points from Hudnall.
 
McNeese will head to Northwestern State Saturday for a 1 p.m. ESPN3 game.