LAKE CHARLES—Southeastern's Morgan Davis' game winning free throw with 22 seconds remaining lifted the Lady Lions (10-6, 6-0 SLC) to a 69-68 Southland Conference victory over McNeese here Thursday to remain undefeated in league play.
 
"We've got to be better on the interior," said head coach Lynn Kennedy. "I thought in the first and second quarters we allowed their attack to open up their post and we didn't adjust well. We also gave up too many offensive rebounds (18), which allowed them to gain confidence. If we block out, we win this game going away."
 
Davis was fouled after making a layup to tie the game at 68 then sank her free throw to give Southeastern only their second lead of the game. The Lady Lions scored the first basket of the game to take the early lead.
 
McNeese (8-11, 3-3 SLC) then called a timeout to advance the ball to its side of the court but wasn't able to get a shot off as Desirae Hansen loss the ball as time expired.
 
"We didn't execute on the last play of the game, if we would have ran it correctly that play would have been wide open."
 
McNeese placed four players in double figures with Zuzanna Kulinska leading the way with 19 points with 11 coming in the first half. Kulinska was 7 of 13 from the field including one three-pointer.
 
Hansen scored 17 points with 12 coming in the first half where she was 4 of 6 from behind the arc. She ended the game 5 of 11 from the field.
 
Kaili Chamberlin and Cristina Gil both ended the game with 11 points apiece.
 
The Cowgirls held as much as an 11 point lead in the second quarter (29-18) on three straight three's including back to back three's by Hansen and a layup by Le'Shenae Stubblefield.
 
SLU cut the lead back to single digits but McNeese put the lead back up to 11 points on another Stubblefield layup to lead 34-26 at the half.
 
McNeese continued to hold onto its lead and led by as many as 10 (50-40) with 2:10 to play in the third quarter but Southeastern went on a 6-0 run to but the McNeese lead to four points but Hansen was fouled on a three-point attempt and she made all three to give the Cowgirls a 53-46 lead at the end of the third.
 
The Lady Lions turned up its defensive pressure in the second half and cut the Cowgirl lead to two points (54-52) early in the fourth quarter. McNeese responded with back to back three's from Kulinska and Kaili Chamberlin on consecutive possessions put the Cowgirls up 60-54.
 
SLU cut the lead to one point with 3:52 to play but a Cristina Gil layup and then another three by Gil with 2:12 to play upped the Cowgirl lead to 68-64.
 
The Lady Lions outscored the Cowgirls 43-34 in the second half an took advantage of the height difference to score 58 of their points in the paint.
 
Davis led SLU with 19 points while Caitlyn Williams scored 14 and Chrissy Brown added 12.
 
McNeese will conclude its four game home stand on Saturday against Northwestern State. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m.