LAKE CHARLES – Larry Johnson's steal and dunk with three seconds to play in triple-overtime capped one of the most remarkable games in Southland Conference Tournament history as McNeese grinded out an 84-80 win over UTRGV in the Southland Conference semifinals to advance to Wednesday's championship game against Stephen F. Austin and to play for its third straight title and NCAA Tournament bid.
 
McNeese, the No. 2 seeded team, extended its winning streak to 10-straight games while improving to 27-5 overall. The Cowboys will face No. 1 Stephen F. Austin at 4 p.m. on Wednesday in the title game and will air nationally on ESPN2. The Lumberjacks rallied to edge A&M-Corpus Christi 60-58 in the first semifinal of the day.
 
The three overtime periods tied a conference tournament record, oddly held by the Cowboys when they defeated Lamar, 78-77, in the 1982 semifinals. Tuesday night's game was the ninth overtime game McNeese has played in the postseason tournament, winning five of those.
 
It looked like the Cowboys were on their way to an easier time early on by opening up a 12-point lead at 30-18 with 3:30 to play in the first half after Tyshawn Archie knocked down a three-pointer before the Vaqueros ended the half on a 5-1 run and cut the Cowboys' lead to 31-23 at the break.
 
UTRGV began the second half hitting back-to-back 3s from Filip Brankovic and Marvin McGhee to pull to within 31-29 but Archie found the bottom of the net on another key 3 to get the lead back to a 5-point margin at 36-31 with 14:26 remaining.
 
From there, the battle was on. The lead changed hands seven times with six ties over the final 13:10 of regulation.
 
McNeese's Garwey Dual putback a missed Larry Johnson 3 with a dunk with six seconds to play to tie the game at 58-58 and RGV's Koree Cotton missed on an off-balance layup with one second remaining to send the game into the first overtime.
 
The Cowboys got the scoring going first with Javohn Garcia driving in for a layup just 16 seconds into the period. Garcia made his return to the starting lineup after missing the last four games due to an injured knee he suffered at Northwestern State on February 16.
 
UTRGV answered with five straight points to go up 63-60 with 3:45 to play. Archie followed with a couple of free throws then DJ Richards Jr. put the Cowboys back on top 64-63 following a steal and layup with 1:26 to play.
 
The Vaqueros appeared to be in control after McGhee sank two free throws to give his team a 67-64 lead with 36 seconds left, but Johnson knocked down a big second-chance three-pointer off an offensive rebound by Jacolb Fredson-Cole with 26 seconds to play to tie the game at 67-67.
 
Koree Cotton misfired on a jumper with 0.2 seconds left to send the game to its second overtime where RGV scored the first five points to build a 72-67 lead with 1:45 to play.
 
McNeese scored the final five points of the period after not getting its first point until Johnson made a layup at the 1:27 mark. Garcia knocked down two free throws with 25 seconds left to tie the game at 72-72, and for the third time, the Vaqueros had the final ball with Jaylen Washington missing a last-second shot to win the game and to send the game into the third overtime.
 
In the third OT, McNeese scored the first four points off Johnson and Richards Jr. layups but the Vaqueros would end of tying the game at 80-80 off two free throws by Julien Gomez with 48 seconds to play.
 
Johnson put McNeese back on top 82-80 with a layup with 28 seconds remaining, then would get a steal and dunk with three seconds to play to seal the win.
 
Johnson finished with 27 points in the game to go along with 12 rebounds and flirted with a triple-double with seven steals. Dual nearly pulled off a triple-double with 10 points, 10 assists and eight rebounds. Archie scored 14 points but only played four minutes in the overtime periods after leaving the first OT with just over a minute to play due to cramping and did not return. Garcia scored 12 points in making his return while Richards Jr. added 12 points.
 
Cotton scored 20 points to lead UTRGV.
 
McNeese connected on 30-of-80 from the field for 38 percent but hit 8 of 25 from three-point range for 32 percent. The Cowboys, who are ranked No. 1 in the league in free throw shooting, made just 16-31 at the free throw line for 52 percent.