McNeese State guard Le’Shenae Stubblefield meets resistance from Southeastern Louisiana as she drives to the basket Thursday night at the Legacy Center. (Rick Hickman / American Press)

Given a second chance Southeastern Louisiana finds itself in first place in the Southland Conference.

The Lions used a second-chance 3-point shot from Hailey Giaratano with 6 seconds left in regulation to send Thursday night’s thriller into overtime.

From there SLU dominated the Cowgirls and won 72-65 at the Legacy Center.

With Texas A&M-Corpus Christi’s loss to Houston Christian, the Lions (15-8, 9-3 SLC) moved into a tie for the conference lead.

McNeese (9-14, 6-6) fell into fifth place.

Giaratano missed her first try at tying the score, but Dijoné Flowers was able to tip the ball back to Giaratano, who made the most of the second shot.

“Get one rebound,” said McNeese head coach Lynn Kennedy. “Get one rebound, call time out and the game is over.”

But the Cowgirls could not do that off the scramble.

“I think I tipped it out of one of my teammate’s hands,” said McNeese forward Divine Tanks. “We have to get that rebound.”

It was one of 19 offensive boards by the Lions.

“It happened all night,” Kennedy said. “We talked about it, we just didn’t execute it.”

Christina Gil’s 3-pointer from the corner with 1:14 remaining in regulation gave McNeese a 54-51 lead.

The Cowgirls tied the score at 51 on a pair of Tanks free throws with 1:55 left.

After Desirae Hansen’s 3-pointer 5 seconds into overtime gave the Cowgirls the lead at 57-54 SLU went on a 9-0 run with Giaratano’s jumper putting the game away at 63-57 with 1:37 remaining.

Giaratano finished with a game-high 23 points while Natalie Kelly had 16 rebounds.

McNeese was led by Hansen’s 13 points as she went over the 1,500-point mark in her career. Tanks had a double-double of 10 rebounds and 10 points, moving into fourth-place all-time on the Cowgirls’ rebounding list.

After falling behind 29-20 at halftime, McNeese came out roaring after the break. Le’Shenae Stubblefield scored all 10 of her points during a span of 2:44 of the quarter as McNeese cut the lead to 42-41 heading into the fourth.

The Cowgirls started slow, missing their first six shots from the floor and were down 8-0 3:29 into the game.

Paris Mullins and Stephanie Guidon responded, coming off the bench to score seven points as McNeese closed the gap to 16-11 entering the second quarter.

McNeese was played without Zuzanna Kulinska, who is out indefinitely with a leg injury, Kennedy said.