KATY, Texas – McNeese left everything it had on the floor in the first round of the 2016 Southland Conference Tournament, but missed opportunities to put the game away late went wayside as the Cowboys dropped a 94-90 double-overtime heartbreaker to Nicholls here Wednesday night.
 
McNeese (9-20) trailed 48-37 at the half after a half court, buzzer-beating shot by the Colonels' Ja'Dante Frye capped a 5-0 run to end the half then led by as much as 15 points (61-46) with 13:18 to play in the game before the Cowboys tightened up their defense and began to chip away at the deficit.
 
True freshman Jarren Greenwood led the team with 23 points followed by Jamaya Burr who had 21. Austin Lewis, playing in his final game of his career, went out with a bang with 17 points, 11 rebounds and two blocked shots.
 
Greenwood, who hit a game-tying three-point shot with two seconds to play against the Colonels on Feb. 27 in Lake Charles to send the game into overtime where McNeese ended up winning 71-69, hit another game-tying three with 2:13 to play to knot the score up for the first time since the first two minutes of the game.
 
Burr gave the Cowboys their first lead of the game with two free throws with 33 seconds to play but Frye tied it up with two free throws of his own with 11 seconds left.
 
McNeese had two chances to win the game in the final seconds. First a Burr jumper in the paint bounced off the front of the rim then a Stephen Ugochukwu tip-in attempt at the buzzer fell just short of the mark as the game went into overtime.
 
The Cowboys, who were playing in their second straight tournament first round overtime game, appeared to have things in control late in the OT period when Nicholls' T.J. Carpenter, who led the Colonels with 22 points, fouled Greenwood on a made basket then was whistled for a technical foul that sent him to the bench with his fifth of the game.
 
Greenwood's layup gave McNeese an 82-79 lead as Burr followed by going 1 for 2 on the technical free throws to push the lead to 83-79. Greenwood followed up with a miss on his traditional three-point play but the Cowboys remained in control with an 83-80 lead with 11.3 seconds left and Ugochukwu at the line for two free throws. Needing to make just one to likely seal the win, Ugochukwu, who finished with 15 points, missed both freebies and Nicholls gained control.
 
The Cowboys quickly fouled to send the Colonels to the line. Nicholls entered the game ranked last in the league in free throw shooting and hit one of two from Shane Rillieux to cut the margin to two. But on the miss off his second shot, Frye pulled in the offensive rebound and was fouled by Shaun Johnson who was also going for the ball.
 
Frye hit both free throws to tie the game at 83-83 with 7.4 seconds remaining setting up another last second chance for the Cowboys to win it. But this time McNeese didn't get a chance to get a shot up as Burr was stripped of the ball when going for a shot and the clock ran out to send the game into a second overtime period.
 
Playing with three players who had fouled out (Lewis, James Harvey and Lance Potier) McNeese rallied from a four point deficit in the second OT to tie it 90-90 after Burr hit 1 of 2 free throws with 1:20 to play. But that would be the last scoring McNeese would see as Nicholls got a back door dunk by Frye to put the Colonels up for good with 1:08 to play.
 
The two teams combined to shoot 84 free throws in the game, McNeese hitting 30 of 43 for 69.8 percent and Nicholls 31 of 41 for 75.6 percent.
 
Frye finished the game with 18 points while Liam Thomas added 16 and Johnathan Bell 11 for the Colonels.
 
Burr added nine rebounds and four assists for the Cowboys while Greenwood played a career-high 49 minutes.
 
Nicholls advances to play Sam Houston State in the second round on Thursday.