LAKE CHARLES – McNeese will look to lock up at least a share of the Southland Conference regular season championship on Saturday when it hosts Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and with some help, could secure the outright title and the overall No. 1 seed for the conference tournament.
 
Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m. in McNeese's Legacy Center and the game will broadcast live on ESPN+. A win over the Islanders and a loss by Lamar at HCU will clinch the outright title for the Cowboys.
 
McNeese (21-6, 15-1 SLC), who has clinched a double-bye for the tournament, has won five straight games since losing its only league game at Nicholls on February 1. The Cowboys defeated the Islanders 74-73 in Corpus Christi on January 27. AMCC is 17-11 overall and 10-6 in the conference and is in a tie for fourth place with Nicholls in the standings. The Islanders have won two straight games, beating UIW 69-55 and HCU 68-62, both at home. They've lost three out of their last four on the road.
 
Gameday Notebook:
• McNeese will be looking to win back-to-back conference titles for the second time in school history (2001 and 2002).
• McNeese is 13-1 since January 1 and 32-3 since January 1, 2024.
• The Cowboys are 11-1 in the Legacy Center this season and 8-0 in home conference games.
• McNeese has won 9-straight overall at home and 18-in-a-row in home conference games dating back to the 2022-23 regular season finale.
• 29-1 home record over the last two years.
• The Cowboys won their 400th all-time Southland Conference game at UNO on Feb. 15 to become the first team in league history, past or present, to win 400 conference games. 
• McNeese has compiled an overall record of 51-10 over the last two seasons, the most in school history as a Division I program over a two-year span and 3 wins shy of the overall school record of 54 set in the 1956 and 1957 seasons.
• The Cowboys are 32-2 in Southland Conference games the last two seasons.
• Saturday's game will be the 29th meeting of the series with the Islanders leading 19-9 all-time.
• McNeese has won 3-straight in the series by a combined total of 9 points (2, 1-point wins and a 7-point win).
• Cowboys' head coach Will Wade is 3-0 all-time against the Islanders.
• McNeese is ranked No. 8 in this week's CollegeInsider.com Mid-Major Top 25 poll and is 18th in the latest Mid-Major Power 20 Rankings that includes all non-Power 4 Conference teams.
• DJ Richards Jr. has scored 985 career points, 15 away from 1,000.
• Brandon Murray has scored 963 points in his career, 37 from 1,000.
• Joe Charles needs 13 rebounds to get to 700 in his career (687).
• McNeese has an 18-1 record when leading at half and 12-0 when leading at half in conference games.
• 13-1 when shooting 50% or better in 2nd half for the season; 6-0 at 60% or better in 2nd half.
• Shot 50% or better in 2nd half in 11 of 16 SLC games.
• McNeese is outscoring its conference opponents by 14.2 points and has posted 12 of its 15 wins by 10 points or more.
• Quadir Copeland has dished out 3 or more assists in 9 straight games.
• Richards Jr. has made 151 threes in his McNeese career, ranking 10th all-time in school history.
• Richards Jr. has connected on 18 of 32 from long range the last 4 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.