LAKE CHARLES – Bye-Bye-Bye was the McNeese Cowgirls swan song when capping its home basketball slate on Saturday following a 73-63 win over UIW in Southland Conference action.
 
The win clinched a bye for the Cowgirls (13-13, 8-5 SLC) in the March 9-13 conference tournament as McNeese locked up at least fourth place in the standing.
 
The Cowgirls, who have now won four straight and are 8-3 since opening up conference play with two losses.
 
"This is a big deal for our program," said head coach Lynn Kennedy about earning a bye. "We weren't picked to do that. We know we're a good team and I think we've become better and better throughout the last few weeks."
 
Saturday's game was a grind that saw UIW (9-15, 5-8) use a 12-2 run early in the third quarter to pull ahead 43-39.
 
From that point on, the Cowgirls stepped up their game and responded with a 10-0 run with six of those points scored by Christina Gil who finished with 11 points.
 
"They (UIW) came out in the second half and put more pressure on our guards and caused us to turn it over," said Kennedy. "A couple of times we lost composure. They got that four-point lead and I called timeout to challenge the team. We played so well on Thursday (a win over first place Texas A&M-Corpus Christi) and we didn't want to have a let down.
 
"We picked it back up. The 10-0 run changed the momentum. It put doubt in their mind and we got our confidence back offensively."
 
McNeese started the third quarter 1 for 6 shooting, and from the beginning of the run until the end of the quarter, knocked down 4 of 6 to go up 54-47 at the end of the period. The Cowgirls connected on 6 of 8 from the field in the fourth quarter, capping the final 14 minutes of action shooting 10 of 14 of their shots and sealing the win.
 
Le'Shenae Stubblefield and Desirae Hansen each scored 15 points to lead the Cowgirls while Divine Tanks added 12 points and seven rebounds.
 
UIW's Jaaucklyn Moore, who entered the game as the league's top scorer with 17.8 points per game, was held to 12 on Saturday, including 2 of 8 from 3-point range.
 
"She's a good player," said Kennedy of Moore. "I thought we did a really good job on her and frustrated her for the most part."
 
McNeese hit 52 percent of its shots for the game (25 of 48) and 55 percent (11 of 20) in the second half, including 6 of 8 for 75 percent in the fourth quarter.
 
The Cowgirls will get a break this coming week with having Thursday off and will close out the regular season next Saturday when they visit HBU.