LAKE CHARLES – McNeese's Masked Cowboy, Javohn Garcia, led the way with 25 points against Nicholls on Saturday, scoring 20 of those in the second half, and the Cowboys were able to gut out an 80-71 win over the Colonels in front of a season-high attendance of 4,032 and in a rematch of last year's Southland Conference tournament title game.
 
The win marked the 16^th straight league win for McNeese (11-5, 5-0 SLC), matching it with UT Arlington as the fourth-longest in conference history. It also keeps the Cowboys atop the Southland standings. Nicholls dropped to 9-7 overall and 3-2 in the conference. The two will play again on February 1 in Thibodaux.
 
A contest that was expected to be as physical as it was, McNeese was able to keep Nicholls at an arm's length throughout the second half by knocking down key shots and hitting free throws.
 
Garcia, the reigning Southland Player of the Week, hit a big layup plus a free throw with 8:31 to play to put McNeese up 58-50 after Nicholls had cut the lead to five points. A steal by Garcia followed which led to a Christian Shumate one-handed Shu Slam to give the Cowboys their first double-digit lead of the half at 60-50.
 
Nicholls came back with four straight points to cut the margin to six but Garcia calmly sank two free throws to once again snap a Colonel mini run.
 
McNeese made 15 of its 17 shots at the free throw line at the 9:00 mark on down with Garcia going 9-for-9 during that span.
 
Quadir Copelan added 14 points and T'Johnn Brown scored 10, a career-high. Joe Charles added nine points and a game-high 12 rebounds.
 
Rob Brown III led three Colonel double-figure scorers with 16 points while Byron Ireland and Jamal West Jr. each scored 14.
 
McNeese shot just 37.5 percent for the game, hitting 24 of 64. Nicholls was a smidge worse at 37.3 percent (22-59). Neither team shot well from long range, McNeese 3 for 15 (20 percent) and Nicholls 4 of 18 (22.2 percent). The Cowboys knocked down 29 of 39 from the free throw line for 74.4 percent while Nicholls hit 23 of 26 for 88.5 percent.
 
The Cowboys dominated the glass, outrebounding Nicholls by a 46-35 margin including a season-high 23 rebounds on the offensive glass that turned into 28 second chance points. McNeese also scored 20 points off 16 Nicholls turnovers.
 
McNeese will be back in action on Monday when it visits HCU for a 7 p.m. tip.
 
Postgame Notebook:
• With six rebounds, Christian Shumate moved into fourth on the McNeese all-time record book, now with 968. He passed Frank Glenn who had 963.
• The win was the 13^th-straight home conference game win for the Cowboys dating back to the 2022-23 season.
• McNeese is 24-1 at home over the last two seasons.
• Javohn Garcia has scored 20 or more in three of five conference games this season and is averaging 21.0 in league play.
• T'Johnn Brown's 10 points were a career-high.
• Joe Charles 12 rebounds were a season high and he's now pulled in 10 or more boards in two of the last three games.
• McNeese improves to 58-48 all-time against Nicholls and has won five straight in the series.