HAMMOND – McNeese's Johnathan Massie scored a career-high 24 points while Christian Shumate added his Southland Conference-leading 12^th double-double on the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds, but Southeastern was able to rally from a 12-point halftime deficit to defeat the Cowboys 78-75 in overtime here Saturday.
 
The loss dropped McNeese to 8-22 overall and 5-12 in conference play, and with UIW beating Texas A&M-Commerce and Lamar falling to New Orleans, McNeese must beat UNO on Wednesday in the regular-season finale and have Lamar lose at Nicholls and UIW fall at Northwestern State for the Cowboys to make the postseason tournament.
 
Zach Scott added 18 points for McNeese while Harwin Francois scored 10.
 
Boogie Anderson led SLU (17-13, 11-6) with 24 points followed by Nick Caldwell's 14, Roger McFarlane with 12 and Roscoe Eastmond 11.
 
The Cowboys led 34-22 behind 10 points from Shumate and the Lions making just 8 of 31 (26 percent) from the field including 1 of 9 from long range.
 
Massie hit a couple of early second half free throws to give the Cowboys a 36-22 lead but Southeastern scored the next six points and continue to slowly chip away at the lead.
 
McNeese led 58-47 with 9:42 remaining when the Lions went on an 8-0 run to cut the deficit to 58-55 after a Caldwell jumper with 8:31 to play.
 
A Scott 3 with 5:01 to play gave the Cowboys a 69-63 lead but that would be the final points in regulation for the Cowboys as SLU scored the final six to send the game into overtime.
 
McNeese scored the first two points in the OT period off a Scott jumper in the paint, then after the Lions scored five straight to take a 74-71 lead, the Cowboys scored the next four and took a 75-74 lead off a Massie three-pointer with 1:26 remaining.
 
Caldwell put the Lions back on top off a jumper in the paint with 1:04 remaining to make it a 76-75 score, then after a McNeese timeout, Roberts Berze missed a three-point shot with 35 seconds to play as the Lions grabbed the rebound then hit two free throws by Eastmond to give his team a 78-75 lead with 18 seconds to play. Massie's three to tie at the buzzer fell off the mark.