As Christian Shumate rose toward the rafters, he seemed to be lifting the entire Legacy Center crowd with him.

The McNeese forward also caught the eye of teammate DJ Richards, who had the ball one step inside the half-court line.

Without a gesture, Richards threw a perfect lob pass just as Shumate reached the apex of his leap.

In a thunderous move, Shumate threw down one of his signature ShuSlams. As the crowd roared, the celebration began Monday night. 

It would last for long after the final 5:42 ticked off the clock.

The Cowboys defeated Texas-Rio Grande Valley 100-65 to win their second straight regular-season Southland Conference championship. With the victory, McNeese improved to 23-6, 17-1 with two games remaining. 

“This is why I came here, to be a winner,” said guard Quadir Copeland. “I have never won anything before. This is special.”

Following the game, the Cowboys received their winning trophy, hats, and shirts and even cut down the nets. They hope to repeat this on the same floor in two weeks after the SLC Tournament.

“This is just the first step,” head coach Will Wade said. “We have more to do.”

On Senior Night, it was only fitting that Shumate should lead the way. The senior, who has been at McNeese the last four seasons, finished with the 39th double-double of his historic career.

Shumate scored 19 points and pulled down 10 rebounds. DJ Richards scored his 1,000th career point in the first half and had 19 as six Cowboys reached double figures.

“It was a crazy moment,” Shumate said of the last dunk. “It meant so much to me. I never imagined we would go back-to-back here.”

The milestone points meant a lot to Richards.

“This is definitely an accomplishment I am proud of,” said Richards. “I am really happy to share all this with these guys.”

Copeland and Sincere Parker each finished with 12 points, while Javohn Garcia and Brandon Murray added 10. Copeland also had eight assists.

Joe Charles added six points and 12 rebounds for the Cowboys.

“Anytime you put up 100 points, it is a good game,” said Wade. “It is hard to win two titles in a row, and we are excited about it. We don’t take any of this for granted.”

McNeese reached the magical 100-point mark for the third time but first against a Division I foe when backup senior Lamont Evans banked in a 3-pointer with 18 seconds remaining. 

“It takes all the guys to contribute to win at a high level,” said Wade. “It takes a lot of people to make this work.”

Howie Fleming led UTRGV with 18 points.

But this was McNeese’s night, as they won back-to-back regular season titles for the first time in 23 years. The Cowboys have never won two straight tourney championships, so that is next on the agenda.

McNeese looked like it would make things easy on itself, racing out to a 41-20 lead behind a 22-0 run that ended on Copeland’s runner with 4:32 left in the first half. 

Once again, trouble closing out a half hit the Cowboys, who saw the Vaqueros (14-15, 6-12) score the next 11 points. At halftime, the lead was down to 43-34.

“We still have to clean that up,” said Wade. “We have to finish the half strong.”

The second half was no contest, as McNeese outscored Rio-Grande Valley 57-31. Shumate’s final dunk was a perfect finishing touch to the game and gave McNeese an 86-53 lead, setting off the party.

“We will enjoy this and then get ready for Lamar on Saturday,” said Wade. “We still have work to do.”