The Cowboys will try to salvage what has been a disappointing season with a run in the Southland Conference basketball tournament.

It’s all they have left.

After losing a heartbreaker Saturday in the regular-season finale in four overtimes at Houston Baptist 149-144, McNeese State returns to Texas for the tourney in Katy.

The Cowboys (10-21) enter the postseason as the league’s seventh seed, riding a five-game losing streak and nine of their last 11. They open tonight against Northwestern State (9-22), the sixth seed, which has lost six of its last eight.

“We are not dead,” said first-year McNeese head coach John Aiken. “We have to find a way to dig out of this hole we have dug ourselves.”

They will try to start that process against a Demons team that the Cowboys have beaten twice this season.

“I think their size and athleticism — they have a lot of guys 6-foot-2 to 6-foot-6 that are really athletic — has been the difference in our two games,” Demons head coach Mike McConathy said. “Kellon Taylor (10 points, six rebounds) is a big factor, and we had no answer for him in the first game because he got to the rim whenever he wanted.”

“It’s a weird thing to say but I love where we are at,” Aiken said. “We just need to go over there and win just one game and then see what happens.”

McNeese hasn’t won a tournament game since a 62-60 victory over Southeastern Louisiana in 2015. However, beating the Demons for a third time won’t be easy, Aiken said.

“It is hard to beat a team three times in a season,” he said. “We have to be ready to make adjustments.”

The Demons are led by first-team all-SLC center Kendal Coleman, who had 16 double-doubles and 11 in 14 league games. The second-year freshman averaged 15.5 points and 10.1 rebounds a game.

“He is a guy we have to worry about,” Aiken said.

It would help to keep 7-foot center Brendan Medley-Bacon on the court would help.

“We have to keep Brendan out of foul trouble,” Aiken said. “Keeping him in the game in a plus for us defensively.”

McNeese will counter with its own second-year freshman in Christian Shumate. The third-team all-SLC forward leads the Cowboys with 12.6 points and 6.7 rebounds a game.

“Shumate is amazing on the offensive glass, and we have to keep them off the boards,” McConathy said.

Guard Jonathan Massie was named the league’s Freshman of the Year. He was the second Cowboy to earn the honor.

“It is great for our program for those guys to get those honors,” Aiken said.