LAKE CHARLES – McNeese scored the first eight points of the game against Southeastern on Thursday night, trailed by 10 at the half then found itself behind by 17 points with a little over six minutes to play before rallying to cut the margin to one possession, but the ball didn't fall the right way and the Lions were able to hold off a valiant comeback by the Cowboys to post an 83-78 win.
 
The loss was the third straight suffered by the Cowboys (8-15, 2-4 SLC) who are 0-3 on their current home stand. Southeastern beat McNeese for the third straight time in the series and second time this season by the exact same score when the two played at the league's tip-off tournament in early January.
 
The Lions hit 59 percent of their shots in the second half (13 for 22) including 60 percent (6 for 10) from three-point range.
 
"We have to find a way to defend people," said McNeese head coach John Aiken. "This is the third straight game at home where we've allowed 80 points or more."
 
For the game, SLU shot 27 for 54 for 50 percent and 11 of 21 from 3FG range.
 
McNeese was able to get back into the game by changing its defense when it found itself down 76-59 with 6:16 to play in the game.
 
"I told the guys we have to make a change," said Aiken. "We went to a junk defense at that time. We went to a triangle and two and that's when we started to make our run."
 
The Lions seemed to have put the game away after Jayln Hinton made 1 of 2 free throws to give his team a 79-66 lead with 3:51 to play. The Cowboys followed with seven straight points, capped by a Christian Shumate 3 that pulled McNeese to within 79-73 with 2:18 left.
 
Zach Scott, who scored 17 in the game, buried a 3 to make it 81-76 with 1:02 on the clock, then Shumate stole the ball at half court and slammed down his 15^th point of the night as the Cowboys climbed to within one possession at 81-78 with 38 seconds remaining.
 
McNeese's defense came up big again and forced the Lions to kick the ball out of bounds with 23 seconds to play but had no timeouts left to call and set up a play.  A contested layup by Kellon Taylor missed its mark with 9 seconds left as Southeastern pulled down the rebound then hit two free throws to finish off the game.
 
"I wish I had one back to set up a shot," said Aiken about a timeout. "It kind of cost us not having that one extra timeout but I had to use them to get us back into the game.
 
"This is the second straight game where we've had the ball late with a chance to win or tie and couldn't get it done. We have to find a way to close out those kinds of games."
 
Collin Warren led four Cowboy double-figure scorers with 19 points after hitting a career-high four 3s. Scott added 17 points while Shumate scored 15 and Brendan Medley-Bacon added 10 with a game-high eight rebounds.
 
Southeastern's Keon Clergeot and Ryan Burkhardt each scored 17 to lead the Lions.
 
McNeese shot 26 for 57 (45.6 percent) in the game and 8 for 24 (33.3 percent) from behind the arc.
 
The Cowboys will wrap up their home stand on Saturday when they host Northwestern State at 4 p.m.