CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Never leave a Bayou Bandit with air in his lungs.
That was proven on Monday night when Texas A&M-Corpus Christi built an 18-point lead with just under 13 minutes to play, then assumed the McNeese Cowboys were dead in the water.
Exactly 12:56.7 seconds later,
Christian Shumate tipped in a missed
Antavion Collum tip with 0.3 seconds to play as the Cowboys stunned the defending two-time Southland Conference champions, 62-61 at the American Bank Center.
It's the largest second-half comeback in school history.
The missed, then made tip-in for the game-winner came after
Mike Saunders Jr. missed the second of two free throws with 3.2 seconds remaining, leaving the Cowboys one point short on the scoreboard at the time.
The win catapulted McNeese into a two-game lead in the league standings as it improves to 17-2 overall (6-0 in the SLC) and matching the best start in school history (1973-74). It was also the 12
th-straight win for the Cowboys as they clinch their first winning season since 2011-12.
McNeese also snapped a 16-game losing streak to the Islanders, picking up its first win since
Shumate finished with a game-high 13 rebounds and added eight points, but none more important than his final two.
DJ Richards Jr. came off the bench to lead the Cowboys with 12 points, all in the second half, and helped ignite the Cowboys' comeback with three 3-pointers.
Shahada Wells and
Javohn Garcia each scored 10.
The Islanders (11-8, 4-2) led 31-30 at the half after ending the first 20 minutes on a 12-5. They fell behind 25-19 after a Collum three-pointer at the 7:14 mark.
The Cowboys didn't score after Shumate's three-pointer with 3:19 to play in the half and that drought carried into the first 5:49 of the second half as the Islanders opened on a 16-0 run to take a 48-31 lead before the Cowboys were able to score their first points in the second half, those coming at the free throw line by Richards Jr. with 13:11 on the clock.
A jumper by AMCC's Dayne Prim made it an 18-point game at 50-32 with 12:57 remaining as the Islanders continued to roll over the Cowboys. Only problem, they didn't put the gear in reverse to make sure they were dead.
Richards Jr. sank his first of three treys on the next possession then sank his second two possessions later as he was fouled. He completed the 4-point play, his third in four games, to cut the margin to 52-39 with 11:48 on the clock.
Corpus built the lead back up to 12 points at the 10:10 mark, but McNeese answered with a 7-0 run as Richards Jr. nailed his third 3 followed by a couple of
CJ Felder free throws and cutting the lead to 54-49 with 6:54 to play.
After Corpus went back up by 8 with 5:25 left, Wells connected on a three-pointer and Garcia hit a layup after an Islander miss to make it a 57-54 game with 4:44 left. Shumate later tied the game at 58-58 with 3:18 to play then after neither team could score in the next 1:36, Corpus got two free throws by Dian Wright-Forde to give it a 60-58 lead with 1:34 left.
Both teams traded 1-2 looks at the line the next two possessions and with Corpus leading by 2 and the Cowboys with the ball, the Islanders' Jordan Roberts, who led all scorers with 18 points, fouled
Mike Saunders Jr. to send him to the line with 3.2 on the clock.
Saunders made the first and after a Corpus timeout, missed the second short off the front rim. Collum had a good look at the tip but missed. Shumate then came out of nowhere to get the game-winning tip.
McNeese shot 37% for the game (21-57) and just 32% in the second half (9-28) while Corpus connected on 38% (20-53) but only 18% from three-point range (4-22).
Both teams missed 10 free throws. McNeese turned it over 12 times but only four in the second half while AMCC turned it over 15 times.
McNeese will be back home on Saturday when it hosts New Orleans at 4 p.m.
