LAKE CHARLES – Willy the Kid rode into the Legacy Center for the first time this season then swaggered out with his Bayou Bandits with a commanding 67-48 victory over Southern Miss on Wednesday night in front of 3,494 fans.
 
A total of 642 days since he last coached on the sidelines, Will Wade recorded his first win as the McNeese head coach in his first outing and improving his season debuts to a perfect 10-0 mark as he begins his 10^th season.
 
DJ Richards came off the bench to score a career-high 24 points behind six three-point buckets, and Christian Shumate scored 11 points with 12 rebounds to notch the fourth double-double on the year as the Cowboys improved to 9-2 while winning their fourth straight game and matching the best start since the 1976-77 season through 11 games.
 
Shahada Wells posted another all-around productive game, scoring 13 points with five rebounds, four assists and four steals and Omar Cooper added 12 points and three assists with no turnovers. Meanwhile, Antavion Collum was a beast on the glass, pulling down a career-high 14 rebounds, including seven from the offensive side.
 
Southern Miss (5-5) was led in scoring by Victor Hart and Donovan Ivory, who each netted 12 points while team leading scorer and Sun Belt Conference preseason player of the year Austin Crowley, scored 11.
 
It was a tight game through the first five minutes and the scored tied 10-10 when Richards sank the first of six 3s on the night to ignite an 11-0 run over the next three minutes and putting McNeese on top 21-10 at the 12:10 mark. But the energy in the arena was already in an uproar from the previous score after a perfectly lobbed ball by Wells to Shumate for a shattering alley-oop, which has become a staple for Shumate over the last few games. Another Richards 3 four minutes later gave McNeese its largest lead at 28-14.
 
Southern Miss pulled to within 10 points with 23 seconds to play in the half, but Javohn Garcia popped a jumper from 12 feet out at the buzzer to put McNeese ahead 38-26 at the half.
 
The Golden Eagles came out hot in the second half, scoring the first five points behind five straight points by Hart, and cut the McNeese lead to 38-31 less than two minutes into the half.
 
Three minutes later, a dunk by USM's Victor Iwuakor closed the gap to 43-37 with 14:49 to play, but Richards answered and sank back-to-back three-pointers over a 44-second span to quickly build the Cowboys' lead back to double-digits at 49-37.
 
Southern Miss would battle back and pull to within seven points at 49-42 following a 5-0 run with 10P44 to play but Richards came up big again with a short jumper which was followed by a Garcia 3 to jump the lead back to 12 at 54-42 with 9:32 remaining.
 
The Cowboys would build as much as a 22-point lead late before settling with the 19-point win.
 
McNeese shot 40.6 percent for the game (26-64) and 35 percent from three-point range (7-20). Southern Miss connected on just 27.9 percent (19-68) from the field and 7 for 25 for 28 percent from long range.
 
The Cowboys held a 48-44 rebounding advantage over the much bigger Eagles team. McNeese turned the ball over just seven times and dished out 14 assists on 26 shots made.
 
The win was the first for McNeese over Southern Miss since the 2011 season.
 
McNeese will be back in action on Sunday when it hosts long-time rival UL Lafayette at 3 p.m.
 
Postgame Notes:
• Will Wade improves his career record to 197-96 with the win.
• With 12 rebounds on the night, Christian Shumate moved into 15^th place on the McNeese all-time rebounding list with 650. He moved past Craig McFerrin and Chris Faggi who had 639 in their stellar careers.
• The double-double is Shumate's fourth on the year and 25^th in his career, moving one closer to the school record of 31 held by Desharick Guidry.
• With his three assists and no turnovers in the game, Omar Cooper has now recorded 24 assists with just four turnovers in his last four games, all starts.
• McNeese led or was tied in all but 19 seconds in the game.
• In fact, that's the only time McNeese has trailed at home all season. Out of a possible 240 minutes played at home this season, McNeese has led its opponents 235:31, tied 4:10 and trailed only 19 seconds.
• McNeese defeated its fifth, non-conference Division I team for the first time since the 1977-78 season.
• The Cowboys are 6-0 at home for the first time since the 2020-21 season.
• All six of the home wins have been by 10 points or more and by an average score of 89.5-50.2, a margin of +39.3.