LAKE CHARLES – Sam Houston State scored the first eight points of the second half and took advantage of an early foul out by McNeese's Stephen Ugochukwu as the preseason favorites rallied from a first half deficit to beat the Cowboys, 74-67, here Thursday night.
 
The loss was the first in Southland Conference play for McNeese (2-1 SLC, 5-9 overall) while the Bearkats won for the first time to improve to 1-2 in the league, 10-6 overall.
 
Lance Potier led McNeese with a career-high 18 points to go along with 10 rebounds for his second career double-double game while James Harvey and Kalob Ledoux each scored 13 points.
 
But it was the absence of Ugochukwu, who entered the game averaging 18.5 points in SLC games, that handicapped the Cowboys' offense, especially in the paint where they were outscored by an eye-popping 38-8.
 
Ugochukwu played just 17 minutes after he fouled out of the game with 8:59 to play with just four points and four rebounds.
 
On top of that, McNeese made just 29 percent of its shots in the second half while the Bearkats sank 46 percent after being held to 31 percent in the first half.
 
"I felt like we beat ourselves tonight," said McNeese coach Dave Simmons. We were out of sync offensively. Sam beat us without us putting forth our best effort. It's not like we didn't play hard, we just didn't have out best outing.
 
"We weren't ready for the big stage tonight and this was the big stage."
 
McNeese led 34-31 at the half and held an 8-point lead early in the game thanks to the pin-point aim of Potier who scored 13 first-half points.
 
The Bearkats scored the first eight points of the second half to take a lead it wouldn't relinquish but the Cowboys had several opportunities to take over but failed to make defensive stops when needed the most.
 
Trailing 46-45 with 11:07 after a Ledoux layup, the Bearkats rolled off an 18-8 run to go up 64-53 following a John Dewey layup with 6:05 to play.
 
The Cowboys cut the margin to eight at 67-59 following another Ledoux basket with 2:33 to play and then saw Sam Houston miss three straight shots, only to watch it grab three consecutive offensive rebounds with a Jamal Williams putback layup to get the lead back to 10.
 
A long 3-point basket by Harvey cut the margin to five points with 44 seconds to play but McNeese wasn't able to get any closer.
"They came in here and showed their toughness in the league," said Simmons of the Bearkats. "Now we'll have to regroup and go on the road for the next to and make up for this loss."
 
The Cowboys shot just 35 percent for the game (19 of 54) while Sam Houston made 26 of 69 for 38 percent. The big difference came in the rebounds where the Bearkats held a 51-35 advantage including 19-7 on the offensive glass, scoring 13 second-chance points.
 
Jamaya Burr, who was held to just three points, tied a career-high with five steals for the second consecutive game.
 
McNeese returns to action on Saturday when it visits Houston Baptist (6-7, 2-1), an 81-74 winner over Southeastern Louisiana on Thursday night.