Aiken gets first win as Cowboys’ head coach

Published 11:42 pm Monday, November 15, 2021

John Aiken has his first victory at McNeese State.

However, his players stole the show Monday night.

The Cowboys produced a school-record 22 steals Monday night to destroy Champion Christian 116-66 inside Burton Coliseum.

“That’s what we want to do,” said Aiken. “We want to create offense off our defense. We are starting to see what we can do. We call it mayhem.

“We came into this game with a goal, we wanted to set a record for turnovers or steals. We got that.”

The win was the first in three tries for Aiken’s Cowboys, as transfer center Brendan Medley-Bacon led the way with 20 points and eight rebounds in just over 18 minutes of playing time. Myles Lewis added 18 points and Zach Scott chipped in with 15 for the winners, who had all 11 players score with six hitting double digits.

“We have a lot of weapons and we want to put on a show,” said Lewis. “Felt good to get the first win.”

The Cowboys were never challenged by Ariyon Williams, who finished with a game-high 23.

“Great to get my first win for the team,” said Aiken. “Tonight we showed we are a pretty good shooting team.”

McNeese hit on 55 percent of its shots, including 12-30 from beyond the 3-point arc. Harwin Francois made 4 of 7 (all 3s). Francois finished with 12 points.

“We wanted to win this for the City,” said Lewis. “We want to put on a show.”

The Cowboys led 58-33 at halftime, which was the same exact score of the second half.

McNeese will play at LSU Thursday night.

“We look forward to every opponent we play,” said Medley-Bacon. “We don’t go into any game to play to lose.”

The Cowboys were never challenged by Champion Christian, which fell to 1-6.