EDINBURG, Texas – UTRGV outscored McNeese 39-15 from three-point range and the Cowboys nearly pulled off the greatest comeback in school history after trailing by 23 points late in the first half, but saw a three-point attempt by Jacolb Fredson-Cole to tie the game fall off the mark at the buzzer as the Vaqueros escaped for a 79-76 win.
 
The loss snapped McNeese's seven-game Southland Conference winning streak and fourth overall as it fell to 14-4 on the season and 7-2 in league play. UTRGV improved to 7-11 and 3-6 in the conference.
 
McNeese will wrap up its south Texas road swing on Monday with a 3 p.m. tip against A&M-Corpus Christi.
 
Tyshawn Archie scored 23 points to lead McNeese. Javohn Garcia added 19 and Larry Johnson with 17. Fredson-Cole grabbed 10 rebounds to lead the team, seven of those coming on the offensive end including the final one with 3.7 seconds to play that allowed the Cowboys to set up a game-tying play.
 
Three UTRGV players scored in double-digits, led by Marvi McGhee III with 17 points.
 
McNeese trailed 41-18 with 2:59 to play in the first half and was able to cut the deficit to 16 points at the half after scoring the final five points of the period.
 
The Cowboys chipped away at the lead early in the second half, buy any momentum they seemed to build, would be stalled by Vaqueros three-pointers.
 
Finally, with 7:22 to play, an Archie 3 cut the deficit to single-digits at 69-60 for the first time since midway through the first half. But another 3 by UTRGV crew the lead back to 12. Trailing 73-62, Archie scored off a turnover then Garcia knocked down a three-pointer to pull McNeese to within 73-67 with 5:06 to play.
 
The Vaqueros would not make another field goal in the final 6:53. Free throws kept UTRGV at an arm's length while the Cowboys pulled to within 750-71 after a Garcia bucket off a turnover with 3:37 to play.
 
Two more Garcia points make it 77-74 with 55 seconds left, and after stealing the ball on UTRGV's ensuing possession, a near And-1 opportunity resulted in two Garcia free throws instead to make it 77-76 with 25 seconds to play.
 
McNeese was forced to foul after UTRGV was able to break the press and get across half court, and the Vaqueros hit two free throws to go up by 3.
 
Archie attempted a 3 with five seconds to play to tie the game and Fredson-Cole came up with the rebound which was followed by a quick McNeese timeout with 3.7 seconds left. Fredson-Cole's 3 from the top of the key hit off the left side rim at the buzzer.
 
McNeese made just 25 of 63 from the field (39.7%), 5 for 26 from three-point range (19.2%) and was 21 of 24 at the free throw line (87.5%). UTRGV connected on 26 of 48 (54.2%), 13 of 27 from long range (48.1%) and 14 of 18 at the free throw line (77.8%).
 
The Cowboys held a 35-29 advantage in rebounding and forced the Vaqueros into 13 turnovers while committing just seven, two in the second half.