HAMMOND - McNeese will look to take another step closer to clinching the Southland Conference regular season championship and overall No. 1 seed in the postseason tournament when it visits Southeastern on Monday night.

Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. at SLU's University Center. The game will broadcast on ESPN+ and the McNeese Radio Network (Power 92.1 and power921lc.com).

McNeese is 20-6 overall and 14-1 in conference play and holds a three-game lead in the league standings over Southeastern (17-9, 11-4) and Lamar (16-10, 11-4). The Cowboys defeated UNO 78-64 on Saturday to reach 20 wins on the season, the first time since the 2001 and 2002 seasons to record 20 or more victories in back-to-back seasons and for the fifth time in school history. Southeastern beat Nicholls 84-81 on a last-second three-point shot.

The Cowboys and Lions will enter Monday night's game as two of the hottest teams in the league. McNeese is 12-1 since the two teams first met back on Dec. 30, a 79-51 win, while Southeastern is 11-2 since.

Following Monday's game, McNeese will return home on Saturday when it hosts A&M-Corpus Christi followed by a Monday night meeting with UTRGV for Senior Day and the final home game of the regular season.

Gameday Notebook:
• Southeastern handed McNeese its only conference loss of the season last year in Hammond by a 77-74 score.
• The Cowboys have lost three straight at the University Center with their last win coming in the 2020-21 season.
• The two teams have traded wins the last six games with each team winning on their home courts.
• The win over New Orleans on Saturday was the 400th Southland Conference victory for McNeese, who became the first team in league history, past or present, to win 400 conference games. 
• McNeese has compiled an overall record of 50-10 over the last two seasons, the most in school history as a Division I program over a two-year span and four wins shy of the overall school record of 54 set in the 1956 and 1957 seasons.
• The Cowboys are 31-2 in Southland Conference games the last two seasons.
• McNeese defeated Southeastern 79-51 in Lake Charles back on December 30 in a game that saw Javohn Garcia score a career-high 26 points to lead the Cowboys... Christian Shumate added a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds and Bryant Selebangue grabbed a season-high 12 boards.
• Monday's game will be the 125th meeting with McNeese leading 70-54.
• Cowboys' head coach Will Wade is 4-1 all-time against the Lions.
• 17-1 record when leading at half and 11-0 when leading at half in conference games.
• 12-1 when shooting 50% or better in 2nd half for the season; 5-0 at 60% or better in 2nd half.
• Shot 50% or better in 2nd half in 10 of 15 SLC games.
• McNeese has a 14.7 scoring advantage in conference games.
• Quadir Copeland has dished out 3 or more assists in 8 straight games.
• DJ Richards Jr. has made 147 threes in his McNeese career, ranking tied for 10th all-time in school history.
• Richards Jr. has connected on 14 of 25 from long range the last 3 games.
• Christian Shumate extended his school record with his 38th double-double against East Texas A&M on Feb. 10, which also ranks him 3rd all-time in conference history.
• Shumate is averaging a double-double the last two games - 16.5 pts, 10.5 reb.
• Richards Jr. has scored 971 career points, 29 away from 1,000.
• Brandon Murray has scored 956 points in his career, 44 from 1,000.
• Joe Charles needs 23 rebounds to get to 700 in his career (677).