LAKE CHARLES – It's crunch time for the McNeese basketball squad as the Cowboys will need to start stringing together some wins if it wants to qualify for the Southland Conference postseason tournament that gets underway in one month.
 
This portion of the schedule couldn't have come at a better time as the Cowboys (7-15, 4-7 SLC) will play the next four games at home in Burton Coliseum, and five out of their final seven. That home stand begins on Thursday night against league co-leader New Orleans (13-9, 8-3).
 
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
 
"We're facing some good opponents but it's good that we have four in a row at home," said coach Dave Simmons whose Cowboys are tied with Nicholls and Abilene Christian in 10^th place but are just two games out of fifth place and three from third.
 
"UNO is a good ball club so we're going to have to come prepared and be ready to play from the tip."
 
Playing from the opening tip-off has been a thorn in the side of the Cowboys in their last three losses, falling behind by a combined 126-71 in the first half, a 42-24 halftime score average.
 
In addition, McNeese has turned it over a total of 28 times in those three losing games' first halves while opponents have scored 36 points off those miscues, double the amount of the team's halftime deficit average.
 
Simmons is looking for ways to get the Cowboys to get out to a quick start, and that starts with moving the ball and getting good shots.
 
"We're going to put James (Harvey) back in the starting lineup as of right now," said Simmons. "He's very patient with the ball and doesn't force things."
 
Harvey, the team leader with 46 three-point goals made on the season, has come off the bench the last six games and has scored in double-figures in four of those while making 40 percent of 3-point shots. He's also turned it over just six times during that span, the least amount of any player on the team averaging 20 minutes or more a game.
 
Scoring leader Jamaya Burr (11.9 ppg) or Jarren Greenwood (9.4 ppg) will get the nod at the point guard spot while the other three starters are expected to be Kalob Ledoux (10.4 ppg), Lance Potier (6.3 ppg, 5.9 rpg), and Stephen Ugochukwu (10.7 ppg, 8.2 rpg).
 
The Privateers will head into Thursday's game as the league's top shooting team, hitting 48 percent of their shots on the season and nearly 50 percent in conference games.
 
Senior forward Erik Thomas will likely be a candidate as the league's player of the year, averaging 20 points and 7.7 rebounds while hitting 61 percent of his shots.
 
Thomas scored 17 points with seven rebounds against the Cowboys in a 75-56 win in New Orleans back on Jan. 26.
 
In that game, UNO shot out to a 40-22 halftime lead and never felt a threat from the Cowboys in the second half as it moved to 7-1 in league play at the time.
 
Since then, the Privateers, who were picked for an eighth place finish in preseason polls, have come back down to earth a bit having lost two of their last three games. UNO defeated Nicholls 78-69 in its last outing on Saturday to snap a two-game losing streak.
 
Thursday's game will be the 18^th meeting in the all-time series with UNO holding a 10-7 lead. McNeese has a 4-3 lead since UNO joined the Southland Conference in 2014.
 
The home team has won the last five meetings.
 
After Thursday's game, the Cowboys will be back home on Saturday afternoon for a 3:30 tip-off against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in a game that will be broadcast live on ROOT Sports Southwest.