CONWAY, Arkansas – McNeese basketball is no stranger to dramatic finishes lately.
 
That didn't change on Saturday when the Cowboys saw a 22-point lead with 14 minutes to play shrink to a 70-68 advantage with just over three minutes left, but freshman James Harvey calmly sank six straight free throws in the final 23 seconds to secure an 85-77 win for McNeese over Central Arkansas in the regular season finale.
 
Harvey finished with a career-high 31 points to become the first McNeese freshman in 33 years to score 30 or more in a game (Kenny Jimerson 32 points in March 1983).
 
The win was the third straight for the Cowboys (9-19, 7-11) who will go into next week's Southland Conference Tournament as the No. 6 seed and will play a first round game at 7:30 p.m. next Wednesday.
 
"James Harvey showed up big tonight," said head coach Dave Simmons. "We nicknamed him 'Governor' because our new Governor is from his hometown but now I think we'll call him 'Curry' after Stephan Curry."
 
Harvey sank 8 of his 12 shots from the floor including 5 of 9 from 3-point range. He also hit 10 of his 12 free throws as he led the Cowboys to their best shooting of the season from the field at 57.1 percent (29 of 49).
 
Jamaya Burr added 16 points and Jarren Greenwood scored 15 before he left the game with an ankle injury with 17:21 to play.
 
At that point in the game, the Cowboys had built a 54-40 lead and were just at the beginning of a 14-0 run that saw the lead balloon to 22 points at 62-40 following a Harvey 3-pointer with 14:32 to play.
 
Harvey and Greenwood created havoc to UCA's defense but with Greenwood going down, that opened things up for the Bears to take advantage.
 
"I think both would've finished with at least 25 points each tonight," said Simmons. "It didn't seem like UCA had an answer for when they were both on the floor at the same time. But when Jarren went out that took away one of our weapons and with them being such a good shooting team, they were able to get back into the game."
 
The Bears (7-21, 6-12) started to get hot from behind the arc first with Justin Foreman hitting a pair of treys then Jordan Howard following with a couple of his own. But it was Foreman's fourth and final three of the game that cut the margin to two at 70-68 with 3:45 to play.
 
Burr followed with 1 of 2 free throws then Stephen Ugochukwu hit a pair before Craig McFerrin knocked down a jumper off a no-look pass by Burr to get the lead back to seven points with 2:22 to play.
 
McNeese hit 8 of its last 10 free throws, all with under 1:41 to play, to help seal the win.
 
The Cowboys led 46-36 at the half after ending on a 7-0 run and with Harvey hitting a 3 with two seconds to play.
 
The Bears held the lead a couple times thanks in part to Derreck Brooks' 10 first half points. But Simmons and staff made a change in the lineup at the half for defensive purposes and went with Lance Potier to guard Brooks in the second half.
 
Brooks scored just 1 point in the final 20 minutes.
 
"If I had to give anyone an MVP award it would have to go to Lance," said Simmons. "We didn't even know if he was going to be able to make the trip because he's been fighting an illness. He missed practice on Thursday because of it but he came out today and was great."
 
Potier ended with six points, all in the second half.
 
Foreman led four UCA players who scored in double figures with 22 points.