Slide continues, Cowboys off to 0-5 start in SLC
Published 3:00 pm Thursday, January 21, 2021
- Photo Credit
Jim Gazzolo, Special to the American Press
In what is becoming a frustratingly familiar story this basketball season, McNeese State raced to an early lead only to watch it slowly slip away.
By halftime the Cowboys had not only lost another double-digit lead but were struggling to stay close. Once again who in the second half only to not be able to finish the comeback.
The latest chapter in this saga played out Wednesday night inside Burton Coliseum, where the internet was out and McNeese followed suit in a 92-88 Southeastern Louisiana victory.
“Very frustrating loss, very frustrating game,” said McNeese head coach Heath Schroyer.
The loss left the Cowboys (6-8) winless in the Southland Conference after five game. They have yet to win against a Division I team or since the calendar turned to 2021.
“At home, you have to win that game,” Schroyer said. “We played well enough to win.”
The Cowboys have nobody to blame but themselves for this one. Six times in the final 5 minutes McNeese had the ball with a chance to tie or take the lead from a reeling Southeastern (4-10, 2-3 SLC), which itself was just hanging on.
Not once in those offensive trips did the Cowboys even get off a shot. Five of those were unforced errors.
Worse yet, with 18.8 seconds left and down 89-88, Colin Warren, whose dunk seconds earlier had cut the lead to one, missed two free throw attempts.
A pair of free throws by Southeastern’s Keon Clergeot (22 points) forced the Cowboys into desperation. But Dru Kuxhausen, the McNeese sharpshooter, stepped out of bounds before getting a shot off with 7.6 seconds left. It was yet another unforced error at crunch time.
With it, the losing streak hit five.
“We didn’t lose this game because of the missed free throws,” Schroyer said. “We lost this game because we didn’t get enough stops and didn’t make enough plays at the end.
“There are things we are doing during games that are really good, but we don’t sustain that. We have to get that fixed.”
The outcome wasted a solid performance by senior guard A.J. Lawson, who finished with 21 points, 12 assists and seven rebounds to lead McNeese in all three categories.
Gus Okafor led all scorers with 26 points as five Lions finished in double figures. Nick Caldwell had 12 points and Isiah Kirby added 10. McNeese also had five players score over 10 with Rosario added 19 and Kuxhausen 16.
“I like where we are on offense,” Schroyer said.
Early the Cowboys looked good, again. This time they rolled to a 24-12 lead behind the play of Lawson and Carlos Rosario. Lawson, playing more at the point guard, racked up six assists on McNeese’s first eight field goals, five of which were delivered by Rosario.
But that lead soon faded as the Cowboy offense began to slow into less passing and more dribbling. Meanwhile, the Lions were finding there game and outscored McNeese 26-10 over the final 7:16 of the half to grab a 48-41 lead at intermission.
The 19-point turnaround proved too much to overcome.
But it is the points that McNeese never got a chance to score which played the biggest role on this night.
