They had knocked the mighty giant to his knees, but they didn’t finish him off.

Given three chances to do so, McNeese State came up empty over the first 35 minutes of play Saturday night in Hammond.

The giant and his buddies made the Cowboys pay for not finishing them off.

Quarterback Cole Kelley, all 6-foot-7, 260 pounds of him, and the rest of the eighth-ranked Southeastern Louisiana Lions found their offense for 8 minutes, 38 seconds at Strawberry Stadium, but that was enough for a 23-20 Southland Conference victory.

“Very disappointing, very disappointing,” said McNeese head coach Frank Wilson. “We have to find a way to get over the hump against this team.”

It was the third time in eight months that McNeese lost a one-possession game to the Lions, who improved to 7-1 overall and 5-0 in the conference. The Cowboys fell to 3-5, 2-3 and out of contention for any part of the championship.

“Our goal each year is to win a title and this knocks us out of that,” Wilson said.

McNeese’s defense was dominating against the all-American Kelley most of the night. The Cowboys held the Lions to 28 points below their season average and led 7-3 at halftime.

But that was also the problem. The lead should have been bigger.

After Cowboys quarterback Cody Orgeron hit Mason Pierce on a 20-yard scoring pass on McNeese’s opening drive, the Cowboys had three chances to add to that margin, moving the ball inside the 2-yard line on each of those occasions.

Christian Donnelly missed on a 21-yard field goal attempt midway through the first quarter to start the woes. It was a haunting reminder of McNeese’s inability to find a kicker. McNeese is 1-for-6 on field goal tries this season with Donnelly being the third to get his shot at the job.

None of the kicks have been longer than 36 yards.

Next, after a Kordell Williams interception, McNeese got the ball at the SLU 7. But, on fourth-and-1, Orgeron was stopped shy of the goal line. Despite dominating the first half, the Cowboys were up by four.

Williams again got the Cowboys the ball to start the second half when he forced Kelley to fumble and the McNeese linebacker recovered it himself. Two plays later McNeese was back at the 1.

But on first-and-goal, Orgeron was intercepted by Zy Alexander.

“We moved the ball but we didn’t finish,” Wilson said. “I thought our defense played lights out.”

That’s when Kelley took over. He threw a pair of touchdown passes and ran for a third over a 9-minute stretch to give the Lions a 23-7 lead with just over 8 minutes remaining.

Kelley hit Damien Dawson on a 1-yard pass play, then found Austin Mitchell with a 77-yard scoring strike before running the ball in from the 1. Two of those plays came on fourth down.

“We played the best we can,” said Williams, who finished with 11 tackles to go with his interception and fumble forced and recovered. “We just have to come back and finish.”

Kelley finished 18 of 30 for 245 yards.

Down by 16, McNeese rallied, scoring a pair of touchdowns in the final 5 minutes. Deonta McMahon ran the first in from 3 yards but the 2-point conversion failed. Orgeron dashed through the Lions line from the 7 with 41 seconds remaining. However, SLU recovered the onside kick.

Orgeron finished 17 of 32 for 198 yards. He also ran for 95 more.

McNeese ended with 428 yards of total offense to SLU’s 375. McNeese ran for 233 yards and controlled the clock but could not get the 1 yard it needed on three goalline occasions.

“We did a lot of good things,” Wilson said. “We gave ourselves a chance. We just got to score when we are in that position.”

The position the Cowboys are in is trying to finish with a winning record. With three games left they will have to run the table to do just that.

“We will play the game to win each week,” Williams said. “We are not going to hang our heads.”