LAKE CHARLES – Three home games remain for the McNeese Cowboys as the first of those three will take place on Saturday against Central Arkansas in the second Southland Conference matchup of the season between the two schools.
 
Tip-off is scheduled for 3:30 at the McNeese H&HP Arena.
 
The Cowboys (12-11, 7-5 SLC) have dropped two straight games after winning seven-in-a-row and are coming off a 69-62 loss at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi this past Wednesday. But despite the loss, the Cowboys got some help with teams ahead of them in the league standings also losing, so McNeese remains just one game out of second place with eight contests remaining.
 
UCA (7-16, 6-6) sits just one game behind the Cowboys are coming off a 74-67 loss at Lamar on Wednesday.
 
The Bears defeated McNeese 79-69 back on Jan. 4 in the third league game of the year.
 
McNeese is led in scoring and rebounding by Sha'markus Kennedy (17.8 points, 10.2 rebounds) with A.J. Lawson (16.3 points) and Dru Kuxhausen (15.2 ppg) following.
 
The Bears have four players averaging in double figures – Rylan Bergersen (14.8), DeAndre Jones (14.1), Eddy Kayouloud (12.6), and Hayden Koval (11.2). Jones led the Bears to the win over McNeese a month ago with a game-high 26 points.
 
Following Saturday's game, the Cowboys will hit the road for two straight beginning next Saturday at Northwestern State then on Feb. 19 at Incarnate Word.
 
POKES RETURN HOME FOR 2ND GO AROUND WITH UCA:
• McNeese has just three home games remaining on the season and will play the first of those three on Saturday when it hosts Central Arkansas. This will be the second meeting of the season between the two teams. UCA defeated the Cowboys 79-69 back on Jan. 4 in Conway in the third conference game of the year.
• The Cowboys have dropped their last two games after winning seven straight but at 7-5 in league play, are still just a game out of second place.
• McNeese has eight games remaining as it searches for its first winning season since the 2011-12 year (17-16).
• The Cowboys' 12 wins are the most in a season since winning 15 games in 2014-15.
• Sha'markus Kennedy was named this week's Louisiana Player of the Week for the third straight week and fourth time on the season.
 
FAST BREAK FACTS:                                             
• McNeese is the only team in the league with four 30-point individual scorers on the season - A.J. Lawson (37 at ACU; 30 vs. KC), Sha'markus Kennedy (37 vs. HBU), and Dru Kuxhausen (32 vs. Paul Quinn). Lawson is the only player in SLC with multiple 30-point games.
• Kennedy leads the conference in eight different stat categories and is in the top 20 in the nation in 6 categories: tied 1st with 1 triple-double; 4th in FG percentage at 67.0; 6th in blocks per game with 3.0; 7th with 66 total blocks; 19th with 10.2 rebounds per game; and 20th with 11 double-doubles.
• Kennedy is the only player in the conference ranked in the top five in both scoring (T-3rd, 17.8) and rebounding (1st, 10.2).
• McNeese is the only team in the league with two players ranked in the top five in both scoring (Kennedy, T-3rd, 17.8; Lawson, 5th, 16.3) and rebounding (Kennedy, 1st, 10.2; Brown, 5th, 7.9).
 
KUXHAUSEN'S RAIN OF 3s CHASING McNEESE, SOUTHLAND CONFERENCE RECORDS:             
• Dru Kuxhausen continues his pace to become the single-season record holder for three-pointers made in school (107) and Southland Conference history (115).
• Kux has drained 95 three-pointers on the year, ranking as the 2nd-most in school history in a season and currently tops the NCAA rankings.
• His .505 3FG percentage is currently 55 points better than the school record of .450 held by Edward Garriet in 2002-03. The SLC record is .476 set by Josh Washington of AMCC in 2007.
• Kuxhausen leads the nation in three categories: 3FG made per game (4.1), total 3FG made (95) and 3FG percentage (50.5).
 
McNeese Single-Season 3-Pointers Made
1.   107 Demond Mallet (2000-01)
2.   95 Dru Kuxhausen (2019-20)
3.   94 Demond Mallet (1997-98)
4.   89 Edward Garriet (2003-04)
5.   87 Jason Coleman (2002-03)
      87 Damon Wordlaw (1994-95)
7.   86 Diego Kapelan (2010-11)
      86 Diego Kapelan (2009-10)
 
Single-Season 3FG Percent (minimum 3 FG att/g)
1.   .505          Dru Kuxhausen (95-188, 2019-20)
2.   .450          Edward Garriet (50-111, 2002-03)
3.   .444          Tab Harris (43-99, 1987-88)
 
KENNEDY HAS RECORD IN SIGHT TOO
• Senior forward Sha'markus Kennedy has already tied a single-game school record with 10 blocked shots against Paul Quinn on Dec. 18.
• His current season FG shooting percentage of .670  would break his own record of .641 that he set last year to break a then-40 year old school record of .635 held by David Lawrence (1978-79). The conference record is .714 (Jethro Owens, NSU, 1991).
• Kennedy has scored double-figures in 9 straight games and has recorded four consecutive double-doubles.
• Kennedy grabbed 20 rebounds against Nicholls on Jan. 29 to become the first player in the league to clean the glass with 20 boards and the first Cowboy to do so since Anthony Pullard grabbed 22 vs. North Texas in the first round of the 1990 SLC Tournament.
 
SERIES VS. UCA 
• Saturday's game will be the 25th meeting in the series with McNeese holding a 15-9 lead.
• UCA snapped a 4-game winning streak by McNeese back on Jan. 4 with a 79-69 win.
• In that game, A.J. Lawson led the Cowboys with 15 points while Dru Kuxhausen scored 14 behind 4-for-5 from 3-point range.
• UCA's DeAndre Jones scored 26 points to lead the Bears, who at the time, improved to 3-1 in league play.