HOUSTON – Responding to their coach’s call for toughness, the Cowboys roughed up Houston Christian Monday night.

Thanks to a strong first half, McNeese rolled over the Huskies 75-59 in Sharp Gym, winning their seventh straight overall. However, the second half wasn’t as pleasing to the eyes.

The Cowboys were outscored after intermission 39-36, as their defense lost some energy.

“We played more to our standards,” said McNeese head coach Will Wade. “It wasn’t perfect. I wasn’t happy with how we ended the game.”

It didn’t matter, as the first-place Cowboys stayed one game ahead of the Southland Conference pack, improving to 12-5 overall and 6-0 in the league. The victory was McNeese’s record 17th straight in league play and 25th in their last 25 SLC contests.

“This is the result expected in the Southland every night when McNeese is involved,” said HCU head coach Craig Doty. “They are a very good program.”

Javohn Garcia and DJ Richards each finished with 16 points to lead the Cowboys, who had all five starters score in double figures. Christian Shumate and Joe Charles added 11, while Quadir Copeland ended with 10 points and seven assists despite fighting foul trouble all night.

D’Aundre Samuels scored 15 to lead the Huskies (6-11, 3-3).

“It is hard to win on the road,” said Wade. “This was a good road win.”

McNeese used a 10-run to start the game to get going, something they have done in five of their six league contests. Behind a balanced attack that kept driving to the basket, the Cowboy lead grew to 34-9 on Bryant Selebangue’s bucket with 3:22 left in the half. 

That ended a 16-0 run over five minutes. Julian Mackey responded for the Huskies, scoring eight points as they closed on a 9-5 run to make it 39-20 at the half.

“We came out strong and that gave us some cushion to work with,” said Wade. “We weren’t great and they made some counter punches. We were able to get contributions from a lot of guys.”

Selebangue came off the bench to finish with eight points and nine rebounds.

The Cowboys scored seven of the first nine points of the second half to go up 45-22, but things slowed down from there for McNeese. Still, HCU could never get closer than 15 points the rest of the way.

“We are going to have to play better moving forward,” said Wade. “We got a tough stretch coming up.”

McNeese will return home for its next two games, starting with a showdown against Lamar (9-8, 4-2) on Saturday before hosting Stephen F. Austin on Monday night. Monday’s game will mark SFA’s return to Lake Charles for the first time since rejoining the Southland last summer.

Tipoff for Saturday’s game inside the Legacy Center is 4 p.m.