LAKE CHARLES—McNeese women's basketball will go into the Christmas break on a two-game winning streak following an 86-68 win over Louisiana College here Wednesday after another productive offensive night.
 
'This is another big win for us and I'm happy for the girls because their hard work is paying off," said head coach Kacie Cryer. "We once again shot the ball really well and we challenged them defensively because we didn't think we were guarding as well as we have been in some game."
 
McNeese (2-8) had another good shooting night, posting season highs from the field and from three-point range. McNeese shot 49.2 percent (30 of 61) from the field and 50.0 percent (12 of 24) from behind the arc.
 
Freshman Callie Maddox led the Cowgirls with a career high 23 points on 7 of 9 from the field including 4 of 5 threes. Junior Regan Bolton continued her hot shooting from behind the arc by connecting on 6 of 11 treys to end the game with 20 points following a career high 26 against SUNO on Monday night. Sophomore Bre'Ashlee bettered her season high of 10 against SUNO with 18 tonight.
 
Junior Damilola Balogun and freshman Maia Robinson led the Cowgirls on the boards with both players picking up career highs. Balogun led all players with 13, 10 of which game on the defensive glass. Robinson picked up 10 boards, seven on defense.
 
"The last two games we shot the tremendously well. This team is capable of doing this night in and night out. You can see the confidence in us offensively right now," said Cryer.
 
McNeese took the lead on its first possession and never looked back as the Cowgirls opened up a 21-10 lead on a Jones layup with less than three minutes left in the first quarter and held a 23-15 after the first period.
 
Louisiana College made a run in the second quarter to cut the lead to six points (33-27) midway through the quarter and then again (35-29) with three minutes left. Three straight three-pointers by the Cowgirls including two straight from Bolton brought the McNeese lead back to 13 points and the Cowgirls went into the half with a 12-point lead (44-32).
 
The Wildcats came out of half and made another run, once again getting as close as seven points with 3:53 left in the third quarter but the Cowgirls put together a 10-4 run to lead 61-49 heading into the final period.
 
"My coaching staff did a great job with making an adjustment on defense in the middle of the third quarter and into the fourth that definitely made a difference in the game," Cryer said.  
 
The Cowgirls outscored the Wildcats 25-19 in the fourth quarter and held its largest lead of the game of 24 points with 3:16 to play. The Cowgirls went on an 11-2 run within a two-minute span to take a 20-point lead (75-55). La. College cut the lead to 18 but another Cowgirl run gave them their largest lead of the game.
 
McNeese will break for Christmas and will return to action on Dec. 29 to host Louisiana Tech at 1 p.m.