LAKE CHARLES – McNeese's magical run in the 2023 Southland Conference Men's Basketball Tournament continued on Monday night when the Cowboys made history by becoming the first 8-seed in tournament history to advance to the semifinal round after defeating No. 4 Nicholls 77-71 at the Legacy Center.
 
The win sets up a showdown with regular-season champion and No. 1 seed Texas A&M-Corpus Christi at 5:30 Tuesday evening on ESPNU and in front of a nationally televised audience with the rights to play in Wednesday's championship game.
 
McNeese (11-22) is making its first semifinal appearance since the 2012 tournament. Nicholls ended its season at 16-15.
 
Cowboy sophomore forward Christian Shumate continued his hot streak as of late by recording his 15^th double-double on the season including his fifth straight with 22 points and 14 rebounds. He posted the double-double in the first half when he had 13 points and 11 boards at the break to help McNeese build a 41-32 lead.
 
Zach Scott added 22 points while Donovan Oday scored 12 with four assists and Hardin Francois added 11 points.
 
Nicholls, who swept the season series from the Cowboys, was led in scoring by Latrell Jones' 25 points and Caleb Huffman who added 22.
 
Nicholls never led my more than four points in the game and as up 15-11 with 12:49 to play in the first half when the Cowboys scored nine straight to build a 20-15 lead following a Scott floater in the paint at the 10:02 mark.
 
The Colonels cut the margin to 1 at 29-28 with 5:05 to play but McNeese finished off the half on a 12-3 run to take a 9-point lead into the break.
 
With 12:20 to play, Shumate's dunk gave McNeese a 56-49 lead but Nicholls responded with a 10-0 run of its own to go up 59-56 at the 9:15 mark.
 
The teams battled it out the rest of the way but when trailing 70-69 with 1:32 to play, a Francois layup plus free throw 22 seconds later put the Cowboys on top for good. Scott buried two free throws with 16 seconds remaining to seal the win.
 
Notebook:
• McNeese out-rebounded the Colonels by a 41-19 advantage including 16-6 on the offensive glass.
• The Cowboys scored 14 second chance points and 18 points off of 13 Nicholls turnovers.
• Both teams shot well from the field – McNeese at 54 percent (27-50) and Nicholls 52 percent (28-54).
• Both Shumate and Scott each made 8 of 13 from the field.
• Shumate forced four And-1 opportunities on the night, making good on two traditional three-point plays.
• The Cowboys improved its tournament record to 27-30 overall and is now 1-3 in quarterfinal matchups.
• McNeese improved to 4-2 against Nicholls in the tournament with the previous five meetings happening in the first round.
• The Cowboys will be making their 18th appearance in the semifinals and have compiled a 6-11 record.
• The last time McNeese played in the semis was in 2012 when the No. 4-seeded Cowboys stunned No. 1 UT Arlington by a 92-72 score.
• McNeese and Texas A&M-Corpus Christi have met just once in the postseason tournament, that coming in the 2007 semifinals when the No. 1 Islanders defeated No. 4 McNeese 87-66.