PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Hold off on those moving vans for at least a few more days.

Will Wade has more work to do at McNeese State.

Along the way, he made a little history on Thursday. McNeese won an NCAA Tournament game for the first time, but it wasn’t as easy as it looked at times.

After grabbing a big lead, the Cowboys held on for a 69-67 win over Clemson to claim the first big upset of this year’s tournament. 

The 12-seeded Cowboys will play Purdue on Saturday in the second round of the Midwest Regional at Amica Mutual Pavilion here. The fourth-seeded Boilermakers beat High Point 75-63 in Thursday’s first game.

“This is just huge for our school, our staff, our brand is going to go through the roof,” said Wade, who endured a long 24 hours of rumors he was leaving for North Carolina State at the end of the season.

“I have been on focus for this game; there are no distractions for me. A narrow focus. This was just a great game for us.”

The players were in the same mode.

“We just stayed focused,” said forward Christian Shumate. “This is what we came back for, to win this game.”

The Cowboys are now 1-3 all-time in the tournament. They become the first team from the Southland Conference to win an NCAA game since Stephen F. Austin upset No. 3 West Virginia in 2016.

It was also the first time McNeese knocked off a Top 25 opponent in program history. Clemson came into the game ranked 12th in this week’s AP Poll.

“This is the most satisfying win I have ever had since I went to the Final Four,” said Wade.

Brandon Murray led McNeese with 21 points off the bench, 14 of which came in the first half when the Cowboys raced out to a 31-13 halftime lead. 

“We just wanted to go out there and attack,” said Murray. 

Along the way, Murray scored his 1,000th career point. 

Christian Shumate picked up his 40th career double-double with 13 points and 11 rebounds, including three ShuSlams and a 3-point shot. 

The Cowboys also got 16 points from Quadir Copeland, who dished out five assists and had seven rebounds.

“We wanted to come out and take our best shot,” said Copeland. “Our goal was not to win just one game.”

Things got interesting in the second half. With 16:14 to play, the Cowboys took a 40-16 lead on two Copeland free throws. They kept a big margin when Murray hit a 3-pointer with 8:05 remaining, 51-29. 

That’s when Clemson (27-7) went crazy behind Jaeden Zackery (24 points) and Chauncey Wiggins (21). The Tigers cut the lead to 68-65 with 10 seconds left before Javohn Garcia hit a free throw to ice things with 10.6 seconds left.

And history was made.