NEW ORLEANS – McNeese grinded out perhaps its best win of the season for a gritty performance to claim a 66-63 victory here Saturday against New Orleans to record its seventh-straight win.
 
The deck was stacked against the Cowboys in the second half. Already playing without the reigning Southland Conference player of the year Javohn Garcia, who is still listed day-to-day and missed his third straight game, Larry Johnson played just 11 second half minutes after battling cramping issues, and Garwey Dual was in foul trouble the entire half and eventually fouled out after playing just eight minutes in the half.
 
Tyshawn Archie stepped up and scored on a driving layup with 2.7 seconds remaining to put McNeese up 65-63. After a New Orleans inbound pass was caught out of bounds across half court, Jerrell Colbert made one of two free throws to make it a three-point game with 2.1 seconds to play. A halfcourt heave by UNO's Coleton Benson to tie the game hit off the back of the rim as time expired.
 
McNeese improves to 25-5 overall and 18-3 in league play. New Orleans, who entered the game winners of three straight and seven of its last nine, falls to 14-16 and 12-9.
 
The Cowboys will wrap up the regular season on Monday night at 6:30 when it visits Nicholls for a game that will broadcast nationally on CBSSN.
 
McNeese led for most of the game and held a 39-29 lead at the half. Johnson, who finished with 17 points, scored 16 of those in the first half before falling to cramps early in the second half. Archie matched him with 17 points and sank the final two field goals of the game for the Cowboys.
 
The Cowboys led 42-33 after Peitok Machar knocked down a shot with 16:56 to play in the second half. Benson followed that with five straight points for the Privateers to pull to within four points but Dual answered with a bucket to get it to 44-38 at the 15:00 mark.
 
McNeese held onto a slim lead despite UNO closing to within one possession several times until it took the lead on a Churchill Abass jumper to put his team up for the first time since the early minutes at 53-52 with 9:25 left. That was followed by a Kedrick Osby 3 to give UNO a four-point lead at 56-52.
 
UNO outscored McNeese 11-2 over a four-minute span with Dual and Johnson on the bench for McNeese.
 
Johnson returned to the game the same time Dual fouled out with 4:45 to play and McNeese leading 58-57. An alley-oop pass by Archie to Jerrell Colbert made it a three-point lead but UNO scored six straight to go up 63-60 with 2:32 remaining after a Jakevion Buckley jumper.
 
That would be the last score of the game for UNO as it went 0-for-4 from the field and turned the ball over twice during that time. The Privateers hit just 2 of their last 11 shots in the game.
 
Machar added nine points and four rebounds for the Cowboys with three of those boards coming on the offensive end. Johnson led the team with seven rebounds. Colbert scored eight points with three boards.
 
McNeese forced UNO into 15 turnovers and scored 16 points from those.
 
Osby led UNO with 16 points.
 
With his 17 points, Johnson surpassed the 500 points scored in a season milestone, now with 507 on the year and is ranked second in the school record book for most points in a season by a freshman. He needs 21 points to pass Joe Dumars for the record. Johnson also became the first freshman in school history to score 500 points and record 150 rebounds in a season. He'll go into Monday's game with 507 points and 157 rebounds.