The Cowboys took a giant step toward their first Southland Conference title in 11 years Saturday and also made a little history along the way.

Their 74-47 victory over second-place Nicholls in Stopher Gym gave McNeese State 23 wins for the first time as a Division I program. The record overall is 33 victories by the 1955-56 team that won the NAIA national championship.

 “It is great,” McNeese head coach Will Wade said of the record. “Something else to do. We don’t want to stop at 23.”

The feat comes one season after the Cowboys set the record for losses in a season, also at 23.

The 23-3, 12-1 Cowboys hold a commanding 3½ game lead over Nicholls and two other clubs with just five games remaining. They can clinch both the title and double-bye for the SLC Tournament with a win next Saturday at home against Incarnate Word and some help elsewhere.

The victory was also the 18th in McNeese’s last 19 games.

Nicholls fell to 13-12, 8-4 with the loss. They are tied for second with Texas A&M-Corpus Christi and Lamar.

“We rose to the occasion today,” Wade said. “It is a credit to our guys.”

The defense was key to this Cowboy victory, as they held the Colonels 26 points below their season average. McNeese forced 21 turnovers, scoring 23 points off those miscues.

The Colonels made just 31.3 percent of their shots (15-48) from the floor, and just 7 of 29 (24.1%) in the second half. They missed 17 of their first 20 after the break as McNeese turned up its defensive intensity.

The Cowboys also outscored Nicholls 38-16 in the paint.

“We really guarded well,” said Wade. “We got a lot of deflections. This might have been our best defensive game.”

The Cowboys had a balanced attack with six players scoring at least nine points, four of them reaching double figures. Christian Shumate led the way once again, recording his 29th career double-double and third straight. The junior forward finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds, adding two more ShuSlams to his resume. Shumate passed the 800 career rebounds with his 11th board Saturday.

Shahada Wells and Javohn Garcia each had 11 points while Antavion Collum added 10. DJ Richards and C.J. Felder finished with nine each.

Nicholls forward Dianta Smith led all scorers with 13 points.

Once again it was a big second half that put the game away for McNeese. The Cowboys broke things open by outscoring Nicholls 23-8 after intermission.

Collum’s baby jumper followed his long three-pointer to give McNeese a 52-30 lead with just over 10 minutes remaining. That ended a 12-0 Cowboy run and ended all doubts of any upset.

The first half started slow with both teams struggling to find any offense. Neither team could grab any momentum for the first 14 minutes with the biggest lead by either team being just three points.

The Cowboys did find their game late to run off 11 straight points over a four-minute span to grab a 27-18 lead.

Felder scored the first seven of those points in just over a minute before Shumate ended the run with four points of his own, all on dunks. Shumate ended the spurt with a rebound dunk off a Wells miss. Two Garcia free throws ended the half with McNeese up 29-22.

“We still have work to do,” said Wade. “We want to win the conference, that is our first step.”

That could just be a matter of days away.