There’s playing small and then there is being small.

Saturday the Cowboys’ small lineup didn’t have an answer for the biggest of Houston Christian Huskies.

HCU’s 6-foot-10 big man Bonke Maring bullied his way on the inside while Brycen Long fired away from the outside for the Huskies.

While McNeese tried to keep up, the duo proved too much down the stretch as HCU walked out of the Legacy Center with an 90–81 Southland Conference victory.

The loss drops McNeese to 2-3, 5-13 while the Huskies improves to 3-2, 6-12.

Maring, a senior transfer from UTEP, finished with 26 points, four off his career best. Long hit his career-high and led all scorers with 32. 

“This is what I was worried about,” McNeese head coach John Aiken said. “If you let them get comfortable they will be tough to beat.”

The Huskies got more than comfortable, hitting a blazing 61 percent of their shots in the first half. That included making 7-of-13 from long range to grab a 41-38 halftime lead.

“We are not stopping anybody,” said Aiken. “We could not get out and contest their shots.”

HCU finished the game shooting 56% from the floor and making 10-of-22 threes. They also outscored McNeese 24-7 from the foul line.

“We fouled way too much,” said Aiken. “You can’t do that and give up threes.”

Zach Scott led McNeese with 17 points while Trea English finished with 16. Christian Shumate had a double-double with 12 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

“We got more than enough offense,” said Aiken. “Our offense is fine. We need to come up with some way to play better defense and not give up our offense.

“We got 48 hours to come up with some answers.”

McNeese took a 70-69 lead on two Donovan ODay free throws with 4:24 remaining. But Andrew King scored four points and Long followed with 3-pointer to give the Huskies control at 76-70 with 3:11 left.

“When they took back the lead I think we good a couple of bad shots,” said Aiken.

McNeese never got closer than four after that.

The Pokes did grab a 49-43 lead early in the second half but Maring gave HCU the lead back with seven straight points. The two teams then battled it out until the Huskies took control for good in the final four minutes.

Before the game McNeese retired the No. 52 jersey of John Rudd, one of the greats in Cowboy history. Rudd, who played for the New York Knicks in the NBA, was know for his rebounding.

The Pokes will try to rebound next week when they play at Nicholls Thursday night before returning home next Saturday for the second half of the back-to-back series with the Colonels.