LAKE CHARLES – Monday started out with a changing of the guard at the Nation's Capitol. It ended with a somewhat changing of the guard in the Southland Conference when McNeese whipped Stephen F. Austin, 79-59, in the first meeting of the two teams since the 2020 season after years of domination by the Lumberjacks in the league, even though the Cowboys have dominated for two seasons now.
 
Five Cowboys scored in double-digits to lead them to their first win over the Lumberjacks since January of 2017. McNeese won for the ninth straight time and improves to 14-5 overall while staying undefeated in league play at 8-0. SFA fell to 8-11 and 1-7 in the conference.
 
Christian Shumate recorded his second double-double of the season with game highs in points (16) and rebounds (11). Bryant Selebangue came close to one after scoring 10 points with nine boards. He and Shumate combined to pull in 10 offensive rebounds which helped lead to 14 second-chance points. Sincere Parker came off the bench to score 15 points while DJ Richards Jr. added 14 and Javohn Garcia 10.
 
The Cowboys never trailed in the game, led 43-26 at the half, and held their largest lead of the game at 22 points, 48-26, after Shumate sack a three-pointer with 19:03 to play. The Lumberjacks cut the lead to 62-48 with 8:37 to play but the Cowboys were too much for SFA to handle and quickly scored the next four points on layups by Selebangue and Copeland to get back to an 18-point advantage.
 
Selebangue, who got his first start of the season in place of Joe Charles who was available for the game but didn't play after turning an ankle against Lamar on Saturday, got his 10^th point and ninth rebound on a tip-in off a missed T'Johnn Brown layup to cap McNeese's scoring.
 
McNeese made 47 percent from the field, hitting 27 of 57, and sank 9 of 29 for 31 percent from long range. The Cowboys connected on 16 of 21 at the free throw line for 76 percent and hit 10 of 12 in the second half.
 
SFA made just 16 of 46 for 35 percent from the field, 7 of 20 for 35 percent from long range, and 20 of 32 for 62.5 percent at the line.
 
McNeese out-rebounded SFA by a 37-31 margin and dished out 19 assists on 27 made shots.
 
Next up, the Cowboys will hit the road for three straight games beginning Saturday at UTRGV then next Monday at A&M-Corpus Christi. McNeese will visit Nicholls the following Saturday on Feb. 1 before returning home on Feb. 3 against UIW.
 
Postgame Notebook:
• McNeese extended the nation's longest conference winning streak to 19 games with the win.
• The 19 straight conference wins moves McNeese into a tie for 3^rd with ULM in the league record book.
• Christian Shumate's double-double is the 36^th of his career.
• With 11 rebounds, Shumate now has 997 in his college career and 986 at McNeese.
• Shumate's double-digit scoring game was the 84^th in his career.
• DJ Richards Jr.'s two 3-pointers made increased his McNeese career total to 125 and moving him past Patrick Richard for 14^th in the McNeese record book.
• Earlier in the day, McNeese jumped four spots to No. 8 in this week's CollegeInsider.com Top 25 Mid-Major poll.
• The win snapped a four-game losing streak to the Lumberjacks.
• McNeese improved to 26-1 in the Legacy Center over the last two seasons.