LAKE CHARLES – CHAMPIONS x 2.
 
McNeese finished off its Southland Conference regular season back-to-back championship campaign while clinching the tournament's No. 1 seed in grand fashion by whipping UTRGV, 100-65, in the regular season home finale in front of a rowdy crowd of 3,181 at the Legacy Center on Monday night.
 
Christian Shumate, one of nine Cowboy senior players honored in a pregame ceremony along with three managers, went out with a bang with 19 points and 10 rebounds for his 39^th career double-double. He added four Shu Slam dunks to electrify the crowd, the final one coming with just under six minutes to play on the back end of an alley-oop pass from D.J. Richards that put McNeese up by 33 at the time.
 
Richards Jr. was right along with him with 19 points as well behind 4 of 5 shooting from three-point range. He netted the 1,000^th point of his career after hitting two free throws at the 7:44 mark of the first half.
 
Quadir Copeland and Sincere Parker each scored 12 while Javohn Garcia and Brandon Murray added 10 apiece. Joe Charles matched a season-high with 12 rebounds, giving him 702 in his career, as the Cowboys held a 42-29 advantage on the glass while only allowing seven offensive rebounds.
 
The win was the seventh-straight for McNeese who improves to 23-6 overall and 17-1 in conference play, tying a school record for most league wins in a season. The Cowboys will close out the regular season on Saturday at Lamar following by a Monday night game at Stephen F. Austin. UTRGV dropped to 14-15 overall and 6-12 in league play.
 
UTRGV started out hot, connecting on four of its nine 3s made for the game in the first five minutes of play and led 16-11 with 13:41 remaining in the half.
 
From there, McNeese turned it on by going on a 30-4 run over the next 9:07 to blow open a 41-20 lead with 4:34 to play in the half. Within that run was a 22-0 run that accounted for 5:37 of that time.
 
The Vaqueros battled back behind four more three-pointers and was able to pull to within 43-34 at the break.
 
UTRGV would manage to hit just one more three in the entire second half as McNeese turned up the defense and punched the gas pedal and put on a show for the fans with showtime dunks, elusive passing and perfect three-point aim.
 
Lamont Evans IV, another senior on the team, banked in a three-pointer with 21 seconds to play to hit the century mark.
 
McNeese sank 53 percent for the game (38-72) and was 12 of 23 from 3-point range for 52 percent. The Cowboys made 10 of their final 16 shots from the 10-minute mark on down in the second half. McNeese made 12 of 14 at the free throw line.
 
UTRGV hit 26 of 62 from the field for 42 percent, 9 of 30 for 30 percent from long range and was 4 of 6 at the line.
 
Postgame Notebook:
• McNeese has won back-to-back regular season championships and No. 1 tournament seed for just the second time in school history (2001 and 2002).
• The Cowboys are now 34-2 in Southland Conference games under Will Wade.
• McNeese has won 23 games in back-to-back seasons for the first time in school history.
• Now 31-1 in the Legacy Center under Will Wade, 13-1 this season.
• McNeese shot 63 percent in the second half, marking the seventh time this season to shoot above 60% in the half and 15^th time to shoot 50% or better.
• DJ Richards Jr. scored his 1,000^th career point on the night.
• Joe Charles pulled down his 700^th career rebound in the game.
• Christian Shumate's 19 points gives him 1,635 in his career and moving him into 12^th on the McNeese all-time career scoring list.
• Head coach Will Wade won his 45^th game as McNeese's head coach.
• With 7-straight wins, McNeese is tied for the 9^th longest current streak in the NCAA while its 11-game home winning streak is tied as the 12^th longest current streak.
• McNeese is two wins away from matching Stephen F. Austin's conference record of 19 league wins in a season.
• McNeese is the first back-to-back conference champion since SFA in 2013 and 2014.