LAKE CHARLES—McNeese Senior
Mireia Yespes recorded a double double (10 pts., 10 reb.) in the Cowgirls Southland Conference opener Saturday, but it wasn't enough as the Cowgirls fell 82-56 to Southeastern Saturday.
McNeese falls to 5-7 overall and 0-1 in the SLC with the loss while the Lady Lions improve to 8-3 overall and 2-0 in the SLC. The Cowgirls will break for the holidays and will return to conference play on Jan. 2 at Northwestern State.
Lake Charles native
Paris Guillory, who was playing her first home game of the season, led McNeese in scoring for the third straight game, ending with 13 points.
Southeastern placed six players in double figures with Alexius Horne leading all players with 19 points.
Southeastern pounded the ball inside all game, scoring 50 of their 82 points in the paint along with 37 points from its bench.
The Lady Lions got off to a quick 9-2 lead and never trailed in the game. Southeastern led 24-13 after the first quarter and held a 42-28 halftime lead.
In the third quarter, Southeastern extended its lead to 15 points (46-31) early in the quarter before an 8-0 Cowgirl run cut the lead to seven points (46-39) midway through the quarter. McNeese missed opportunities to get closer than seven points but a missed three-pointer by
Azjah Reeves and a missed jumper by
Sydney McQuietor turned into a Southeastern 18-1 run to end the quarter for a 64-40 Southeastern lead.
Southeastern continued to go inside and continued to put pressure on the Cowgirls' offense, eventually taking its largest lead of 31 points (81-50) with 2:29 to play.
McNeese ended the game shooting 36.7 percent from the field on 18 of 49 attempts. The Cowgirls were also 7 of 24 from three-point range and shot 65.0 percent from the free throw line, making 13 of their 20 attempts. Southeastern also took advantage of 20 Cowgirl turnovers to score 24 of their points.
Southeastern ended the game shooting 51.6 percent from the field (32 of 62), was 4 of 10 from three-point range, and 63.6 percent (14 of 22) from the free throw line. The Lady Lions narrowly outrebounded the Cowgirls 36-33.
