Another slow start at home, another missed opportunity for the Cowgirls.

Continuing a trend that has put their playoff hopes into desperation mode, McNeese State’s women’s basketball team began their weekend as cold as Thursday night’s weather.

And Texas-Rio Grande Valley took full advantage, toppling the Cowgirls 67-44 in the Legacy Center. 

That’s the fewest points McNeese has scored at home this season. The Cowgirls have also not beaten a Division I team on their home floor.

The loss dropped McNeese to 9-18 overall and 4-12 in the Southland Conference, a game behind Texas A&M-Corpus Christi in the race for the eighth and final spot in the postseason tournament.

With just four games remaining, the Cowgirls are ninth after the Islanders upset Nicholls 59-44 Thursday in Thibodaux. McNeese hosts Corpus on Saturday in a showdown on Senior Day.

“That’s the first round of the playoffs, Saturday,” said McNeese head coach Lynn Kennedy. 

The Cowgirls currently hold the tiebreaker with the Islanders. In their first season in the league, the Vaqueros improved to 15-13 and 10-7 and won the season series with McNeese.

McNeese struggled shooting all night, finishing 15 of 72 from the floor, good for just 20.8 percent. Even that is misleading, for that included a solid fourth quarter.

After three quarters, McNeese was shooting 9 of 54 (16.7%).

“You can’t shoot 20 percent at home and expect to win,” said Kennedy. “We didn’t shoot very well at all. I thought we settled for shots early.”

McNeese was only 4 of 28 on 3-point tries as well.

“We lost intensity early when we missed some shots,” said Kennedy. “That can’t happen.”

Sophomore Boston Berry was the only McNeese player to reach double figures, finishing with 11 points in 18 minutes. 

Kade Hackerott and Tierra Trotter each had 16 points to lead the Vaqueros. Charlotte O’Keefe added 10 points and 15 rebounds for the winners.

McNeese never got going against the Vaqueros. In the opening half, the Cowgirls shot 14.7%, hitting only 5 of 34 shots from the field. 

The game was decided in the second quarter, as the Cowgirls went the final 8:16 without a basket. Their only points came on two free throws after Tyrielle Williams sounded the horn. That ended an 11-0 run by UTRGV, which was up 34-17 at the break.

The Vaqueros’ spurt started after Wilnie Joseph hit a short turnaround move to cut the deficit to 23-15. McNeese then missed its last 12 shots from in the half. 

Any thoughts of a comeback ended as Rio Grande Valley outscored the Cowgirls 16-9 in the third quarter to take a 50-26 lead into the final 10 minutes.

The Cowgirls will need better offense if they are to repeat their performance earlier in the year in Texas when they beat Corpus Christi 59-54. Paris Guillory, who missed Thursday’s game, had 18 in the first meeting for the Cowgirls. 

Her status for Saturday is unclear, though she did warm up and looked good before the UTRGV game.