LAKE CHARLES – McNeese will close out the year 2018 at home on Sunday when the Cowboys host NAIA's Campbellsville-Harrodsburg in the new McNeese arena.
 
Tip-off will be at 4 p.m. The Cowboys will open up Southland Conference play on Jan. 2 at Incarnate Word.
 
The Cowboys will not be back home again until Jan. 9 against Abilene Christian.
 
Head coach Heath Schroyer gave the Cowboys a few days off for the Christmas holiday and said the players and coaches returned energized.
 
"It was great. I thought we came back with great energy. I thought it was really good for our guys and our staff to get away from each other a little bit. We've been on the road together a lot.
 
"For me and for our staff, to take a day or so, to really sit down and look at our team and where we're at and what are the things we can do to help our turnover ratio and figure out how to knock down more perimeter shots and try to tinker with some things going into league play."
 
McNeese (3-8) has lost three straight games but all three had a common denominator of excessive turnovers that proved to be the factor in all three losses. In those games, the Cowboys averaged 20 turnovers with 26 points scored off those miscues.
 
Malik Hines (12.2 ppg) and James Harvey (11.9 ppg) top the team in scoring while Roydell Brown leads the team and the conference with 9.1 rebounds per game. Harvey has been held to single digits the last two games after scoring double-digits in seven of the previous 10 games.
 
The Tigers are 5-2 on the season and played Nicholls on Saturday afternoon.