LAKE CHARLES – One of the more recent analytical metrics to be used for men's college basketball is the "kill shot," a term that is defined as any time a team that scores 10 or more points in a run.
 
Through 29 games this season and information collected by EvanMiya.com, McNeese is ranked as the 2^nd-best team in all of Division I basketball with 29 kill shots on the season, trailing only Iowa State who has 31. The Cowboys are tied with for the 2^nd-most with SMU, UCLA, Gonzaga and Florida, and the 1.0 kill shots per game average is rated as the 8^th-best in the country.
 
In the Cowboys' most recent game, a 100-65 win over UTRGV this past Monday night, McNeese tallied a season-high three kill shots with runs of 22-0, 11-0 and 15-0. It was the first run of 20-plus points on the year for the two-time Southland Conference champions.
 
McNeese, who will enter Saturday's Battle of the Border showdown at Lamar sitting at 23-6 on the season (17-1 in the SLC), has recorded a kill shot in 14 of the 18 league games played and multiple kill shots in six of those.
 
The closest team in the Southland Conference to the Cowboys is Lamar, who has registered 15 kill shots on the season.
 
On the opposite end, McNeese has conceded only nine kill shots to its opponents, the 8^th-fewest allowed in the nation.
 
In the 2023-24, 30-4 championship season, McNeese recorded 24 total kill shots while allowing eight.
 
There have been four games this season the Cowboys have started the contests with kill shots – 12-0 vs. Biblical Studies (Nov. 7), 10-0 vs. UNO (Dec. 28), 10-0 vs. Southeastern (Dec. 30), and 10-0 at HCU (Jan. 13).