SAN ANTONIO – The McNeese Cowboys will bring its show on the road for the second time in the last three weekends when they visit UIW on Saturday followed by a nationally televised showdown against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Monday night in Southland Conference action.
 
Tip-off is scheduled for 5 p.m. at UIW's McDermott Convocation Center. The game will broadcast on ESPN+ as well as the McNeese Radio Network (Magic 92.1 FM and mymagiclc.com) and will follow a 2 o'clock game between the women's teams.
 
McNeese (15-2, 4-0) has won 10 straight games, the nation's fourth-longest streak, and is 4-0 in conference play for just the second time in school history and the first since 1973-74. UIW (5-11, 0-3) has dropped three-straight and has not played since a 97-71 loss at Northwestern State last Saturday. It's Monday game against Texas A&M-Commerce was postponed to January 31 due to winter weather conditions in north Texas.
 
McNeese is coming off an 88-69 win over border rival Lamar this past Monday that saw the Cowboys improve their home record to 9-0.
 
In that game, Christian Shumate led the way with 21 points and 11 rebounds and recording his fifth double-double on the season and 26^th in his career. He was one of five McNeese players to score in double-figures. Shahada Wells added 19 points and matched a career-high with nine assists. Javohn Garcia continued his hot hand with 17 points and has scored double-figures in three straight games while connecting on 8 of 13 from three-point range in that span. DJ Richards Jr. added 14 points to put an end to his double-figure scoring drought while CJ Felder notched his first double-double on the year and second in his career with 10 points and 10 rebounds.
 
McNeese is expected to start the same five it's been putting on the floor the last 10 games, all wins, with Omar Cooper, Garcia, Wells, Shumate and Antavion Collum.
 
The Cowboys received more ammo to its rotation with the addition of Utah transfer Mike Saunders Jr. who made his debut against Lamar and played over 17 minutes dishing out three assists with two points, two rebounds and a steal.
 
McNeese has five players averaging 10 or more points on the year led by Wells' 19.7 average which also ranks him second in the league. Shumate is scoring 12.3 per game along with pulling down a league-best 9.8 rebounds and Richards Jr. is averaging 10.9 a game. All three are ranked in the top 25 in the conference in scoring.
 
Garcia has upped his average to 10.5 per game while Collum is scoring at a 10.1 clip.
 
Shumate will be seeing UIW for the fifth time in his career and is averaging 23 points and eight rebounds per game against the Cardinals.
 
UIW is led in scoring by Sky Wicks' 14.7 average, ranking him fifth in the conference.
 
As a team, McNeese is ranked in the top 10 in the nation and first in the Southland Conference in four defensive categories – field goal defense (4^th, 37.3%), turnover margin (5^th, 5.7), scoring defense (6^th, 60.5), and steals per game (8^th, 10.3).
 
Offensively, the Cowboys are second in the league in scoring (79.6), first in field goal shooting (49%), first in three-point field goal shooting (40.2%) and fourth in rebounding (37.8).
 
UIW is seventh in the league in scoring offense (73.5), eighth in scoring defense (78.5), fifth in FG shooting (42.8%), fifth in FG defense (44.4%), fourth in 3FG shooting (33.9%), sixth in 3FG defense (32.2%), and seventh in rebounding (35.3).
 
Saturday's game will be the 14^th meeting in the series with McNeese holding an 8-5 lead. The two teams split the series the last two seasons.