With a chance to put some real distance between them and the rest of the Southland Conference, the Cowboys begin a three-game road trip with a Texas two-step.

Saturday, McNeese State will take its two-lead league lead to Edinburg, Texas, for just the second time in program history. It will be the first meeting ever with Texas Rio-Grande Valley as a conference opponent.

The Vaqueros (12-7, 4-4) are off to a surprising start as the newest members of the Southland under first-year head coach Kahil Fennell. McNeese lost the only previous meeting in Edinburg, 68-64, in 2018.

“They are a good team that presents a lot of problems,” said McNeese head coach Will Wade. “They put stress on your defense.”

Monday, the Cowboys will be at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (13-7, 6-2) before finishing the trip a week from Saturday at Nicholls. The Islanders and Colonels are the two teams closest to McNeese in the standings.

“A tough road swing,” said Wade. “This is our longest and toughest road trip. It will define what we are in the conference.”

Right now, the Cowboys seem unstoppable in the Southland.

Since Wade took over last season, McNeese has won 26 of 27 games against SLC competition and 18 straight, the longest conference streak in the nation.

McNeese is 8-0 in the league this season and 14-5 overall. The Cowboys take a nine-game win streak into this weekend.

“We have done what we needed to do up to now, but this is a tough stretch,” said Wade. “We will have to take it one game at a time. All our focus now is on Rio Grande.

“Our guys understand what we got coming up. They know this is a long, different trip.”

Senior forward Joe Charles is expected back after missing last Monday’s win over Stephen F. Austin with an ankle injury. Wade said he should be “good to go” unless he has a setback.

McNeese will need Charles and everybody else to combat a Vaqueros team that loves to shoot the long ball. They lead the conference in 3-pointers made at 205, a 10.8 average. 

Cliff Davis, a transfer from Northwestern State, leads the shooting attack with 61 threes in 165 attempts, a 37 percent clip.

UTRGV leads the conference in rebounding with Howie Fleming’s seven boards a game second overall. He was 7-for-7 from the floor while scoring 17 points in a win over Incarnate Word last Monday.

The Vaqueros will be without a key member of their team. It was reported Thursday on social media that 6-foot-8 guard Hasan Abdul Hakim was no longer on the team. 

He led the Vaqueros with 13.3 points a game and was second with 6.8 rebounds. 

The Vaqueros have played tough against two ranked teams. They opened the season by losing to then-No. 19 Creighton by 13 and later fell to No. 15 Wisconsin by three.

McNeese will try to counter with a team dominating since league play began. The Cowboys are at the top in scoring (80.1) and defense (61.3), which is good for an average margin of victory of 18.9. Javohn Garcia’s 17.5 points a game in SLC action is third in the league.