EDINBURG, Texas – The McNeese Cowboys will play their final basketball game before Christmas on Saturday night when they visit UT Rio Grande Valley.
 
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the UTRGV Fieldhouse. The game will also broadcast live on the WAC Digital Network.
 
The Cowboys (3-8) will be looking to pick up their first win on the road for the season while UTRGV (7-6) will carry a two-game losing streak, both at home, into the contest.
 
McNeese has been handicapped by an influx of turnovers in the last two games – 21 in a loss at Missouri-Kansas City and 23 at home against UL-Lafayette in the last outing. In both of those games, the opponents scored a combined 51 points off the turnovers (24 by UMKC and 27 by ULL), more than the difference in both games that resulted in identical 80-67 losses for the Cowboys.
 
"There's no drill that you can do to limit the turnovers," said head coach Heath Schroyer after the ULL game. "You're not going to win many games when you turn the ball over like that."
 
McNeese has two players scoring in double-figures to pace the team – Malik Hines with a team-high 12.6 points per game while James Harvey is sinking 12.5. Roydell Brown continues to shine on the glass with a league-leading 9.2 rebounds per game mark.
 
Hines is coming off his second double-double on the season against ULL where he scored 14 points while tying a career-high with 13 rebounds. Brown added a season-high 14 points while Jarren Greenwood tied a season-best with 14 where he scored 10 of those at the free throw line where he tied a single-game school record by making 10 of 10 from the line (with a minimum of 10 attempts).
 
UTRGV is led in scoring by junior forward Lesley Varner II with a 13.9 average to go along with a team-high 6.5 rebounding mark.
 
Formerly named UT Pan American, McNeese has won all six previous meetings with UTRGV but the two teams have not played each other since Dec. 13, 1991 when McNeese posted a 68-53 win in Hawaii.