BATON ROUGE – McNeese will continue its Herculean road schedule on Thursday when the Cowboys visit LSU.
 
Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Maravich Assembly Center. The game will broadcast on SECN+ as well as ESPN+
 
McNeese (1-2) is coming off an entertaining 116-66 win over Champion Christian this past Monday, giving first-year head coach John Aiken his first win at the helm and his first win as a Division I head coach.
 
Six Cowboy players scored in double-figures while all 11 that saw minutes, scored. Brendan Medley-Bacon led the way with 20 points behind a perfect night shooting – 8 for 8 from the field and 4 for 4 at the free throw line.
 
Myles Lewis added 18, Zach Scott 15, Christian Shumate 13, and Kellon Taylor and Harwin Francois 12 each.
 
The Cowboys dominated the paint in two ways, a 50-28 advantage in rebounding and 60-24 with points in the paint.
 
McNeese has three players averaging double-figures in scoring on the season – Medly-Bacon (13.7), Lewis (11.7) and TJ Moss (10.3).
 
As nice as that win was against CCC, Aiken knows what the Cowboys will be up against with the Tigers (3-0).
 
"They're the best team we'll see all season," said Aiken who is great friends with LSU head coach Will Wade. "The great thing about preparing for LSU, I have two guys on our (coaching) staff that were in the SEC last year so they have some experience playing against them and has an idea of what Will (Wade) wants to do.
 
"I think they're a 3 or 4 seed in the NCAA Tournament, in my opinion, if not higher. We're excited and will be fired up to play. We just have to play a complete 40 minutes and hopefully stay healthy."
 
Health factored into the losses at SMU and TCU.
 
McNeese trailed by eight in the second half to SMU, but when Taylor exited the game due to cramps, that lead quickly ballooned to 19 points. Taylor cramped up at TCU and had to come out of the game but foul trouble forced McNeese to play small with five guards and that fed into and advantage for TCU.
 
LSU rallied from a late 5-point deficit to Liberty late in Monday's game, then exploded for a 74-58 win.
 
"They can put together some great runs," said Aiken. "We're going to have to be able to stay composed and withstand those runs."
 
Darius Days leads the Tigers in scoring with a 24.3 average while LSU, as a team, is outscoring its opponents 86-52 through the first three games.
 
LSU holds a 24-0 lead in the all-time series. The teams last met in the 2015-16 season with LSU winning by an 81-70 score.
 
This game is counted as one of the Emerald Coast Classic games. The Cowboys will continue play in the event Nov. 25-26 in Florida.