It is now officially a historic start for the Cowboys.

McNeese State made history Saturday with its best overall performance of the season.

Behind a dominant and electrifying second half, the Cowboys rolled over New Orleans 102-65 before their third sellout crowd of the season in the Legacy Center.

The win raised the McNeese record to 18-2 overall, the best start in program history. The Pokes also improved to 7-0 in the Southland Conference for the first time as well.

“That’s awesome,” said McNeese head coach Will Wade. “We want to keep on winning and make it hard to break.”

The Cowboys also ran their winning streak to 13 games, one shy of that record. With Dayton’s loss to Richmond Saturday, McNeese now has the longest current winning streak in the country.

“As long as it means a lot to the community, it means a lot to us,” said McNeese guard Shahada Wells.

The transfer student found his game after a bad shooting weekend, hitting on 8 of 9 shots from the floor and finishing with 20 points. He also had five rebounds, eight assists, and three steals.

Wells easily won the battle between the league’s top scorers, as McNeese held UNO’s Jordan Johnson to half his average at 11 points. Johnson came into the game topping the SLC with Wells second.

It was Wells, however, who started fast, scoring seven points to get the Cowboy going in the first four minutes.

“I wasn’t trying to make any personal statement,” said Wells. “I was just trying to get myself going.”

Javohn Garcia also scored 20 points for the Cowboys, who had four players finish in double figures. Christian Shumate added 17 points and seven rebounds, including four Shuslam dunks.

He also had the block of the game when he pinned a Tyson Jackson shot on the backboard.

“That was one of the best blocks I have ever seen,” said Wade.

DJ Richards came off the bench to add 12 points for McNeese.

The key though was stopping Johnson, as Omar Cooper (nine points) and Mike Saunders, along with others, made the UNO guard’s life miserable.

“It was very important to get him off his game,” said Cooper. “We trapped him and I think it frustrated him.”

After falling behind 20-15 with 12 minutes left in the opening half, McNeese took over the game. They would outscore the Privateers 89-49 over the final 32 minutes. That included runs of 7-0 and 15-2 in the first half, as the Cowboys grabbed a 45-36 lead at the break.

“We got out and got our transition game going,” said Wells. “That really opened up our offense.”

Johnson had just one basket for three points in the opening half.

The real McNeese spurt came in the second half, after the Privateers scored 11 of the first 15 points after the break to cut the lead to 50-47 the Pokes went on a tear. Garcia led a 32-5 run over the next eight minutes to give McNeese an 82-52 advantage with just under nine minutes left.

From there it was waiting to see if the Cowboys would score 100, which they did on a Saunders free throw with 1:22 to play.

“A good win,” said Wade. “We got to play a bunch of guys. It shows if you take quality shots you can score a lot of points.”

McNeese will try to equal the longest winning streak in its history Monday night in a rematch against Northwestern State. The Cowboys beat the Demons 68-59 back on Jan. 8.

Tip-off in the Legacy Center is set for 7 p.m.