Still alive
Published 8:54 pm Saturday, February 28, 2026
Archie gives Cowboys flicker of hope
Hopes of sharing a piece of a third straight Southland Conference championship will go down to the wire for the Cowboys.
With one game left, McNeese trails Stephen F. Austin by one game.
But it took just about everything left in the Cowboys’ take Saturday to make that true.
McNeese rallied from a late deficit to top New Orleans 66-63 in Lakefront Arena, keeping hopes of a shared title alive. SFA had knocked off Houston Christian 77-56 earlier in the day.
“To win through that adversity, I don’t know if I have ever been prouder of a group,” said McNeese head coach Bill Armstrong. “To find a way to win that game, that was a championship effort.”
The Cowboys rallied from four points down in the last eight minutes to win their seventh straight game and 11th out of 12. McNeese improved to 25-5 overall and 18-3 in the Southland.
New Orleans fell to 14-16, 12-9, tied with Lamar and Nicholls for fourth place and the final bye in the upcoming SLC Tournament. McNeese had already locked up the second seed at worst and one of the two double byes.
The Cowboys will finish the regular season Monday night at Nicholls on national television. SFA will be at Incarnate Word, which needs a victory just to make the postseason.
With star Larry Johnson playing through cramps, Javohn Garcia missing his third straight game with a leg injury, and Garwey Dual fouled out, the Cowboys found themselves trailing 56-52 after UNO’s Kendrick Osby hit a 3-pointer with 8:26 remaining.
A minute later, DJ Richards tied it up with his only points of the night, a mid-range jumper off the dribble. The Cowboys took a 3-point lead on Jamell Colbert’s dunk with 4:27 left, 60-57, but the Privateers scored the next six points as Jakevion Buckley hit his only two baskets of the night.
Down three, Tyshawn Archie hit a runner, and Carl Cherefrant made a free throw to tie the game one last time at 63 with 58 seconds remaining. After a timeout, UNO’s Coleton Benson missed a 3-pointer, and Jacolb Cole rebounded with 24 seconds remaining.
McNeese held until Archie drove past Buckley and scored what proved to be the game-winner with 2.6 seconds left. Colbert added a free throw, and the Cowboys survived when Benson’s half-court heave at the buzzer hit off the back of the rim.
“They executed it to perfection,” Armstrong said of the winning play. “Ty is as good a finisher as there is in the country. Those guys left everything out there.”
Archie and Johnson finished with 17 points each. Johnson had 16 in the first half before cramps limited his effectiveness.
Peitok Machar came off the Cowboy bench to score nine points and grab four rebounds.
McNeese took a 39-29 lead into the second half before its offense slowed.
“That is a physical team,” Armstrong said of the Privateers. “We are banged up.”
Banged up, but still alive.
