Closing in on their first regular-season title in 13 years, the Cowboys got some time off this week to rest and recover.

Monday night McNeese State received its bye from Southland Conference play, instead sitting back and watching the three teams chasing them battle.

McNeese (23-3, 12-1 SLC) is comfortably in control of its destiny. The Cowboys owned a 3½-game lead with five regular-season games to play before Monday’s night’s games.

“I’ll check the scores, but I’m more concerned about us,” said McNeese head coach Will Wade.

Three teams tied for second place at 8-4 — Lamar (14-11), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi (15-10) and Nicholls State (13-12)— are chasing the Cowboys and the second double-bye in the upcoming SLC postseason tournament. The tourney, hosted by McNeese, will be played next month.

McNeese is 4-0 against those teams so it owns some tiebreakers. The Cowboys play Lamar on Monday in Beaumont, Texas, and return home for Nicholls on March 2.

First they have a home game Saturday against Incarnate Word (8-17, 3-9), which has lost three of its last four. McNeese beat the Cardinals 80-66 on Jan. 20 in San Antonio.

Before that the Cowboys, who have won 18 of their last 19, including their last four. Wade gave the players off Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

“The bye came at a good time for us,” he said. “We needed it. It gives us a little bit more juice in the tank for the finish.”

McNeese is coming off an impressive 74-47 win at Nicholls last weekend, a thumping that was led by defense.

“That was one of our three best defensive games this year,” Wade said. “We really attacked them right from the start.”

It was the end of a four-game streak that has seen the Cowboys play much better after their lone league loss at Southeastern Louisiana on Feb. 3. Since the loss, Wade said McNeese has played at a higher level.

The Cowboys have outscored opponents by 111 points over the last four games (330-219). Their margin of victory has been 27.7 points (82.5-54.8).

“I could not get it through to us until we lost,” Wade said. “That’s when they saw how we needed to play better.”

Nobody has played better than forward Christian Shumate, who registered a double-double in each of the last three games. During that time Shumate has scored 37 points and grabbed 35 rebounds.

He has also been on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” Top Plays five times during that stretch, twice earning the No. 1 play of the day.

The improved play moved McNeese to fourth in the country in defense, allowing 60.8 points a game. The Cowboys continue to lead the nation in point differential at 19, one point better than Connecticut and Houston, the top two ranked teams in college basketball.

McNeese again received a vote in The Associated Press Top 25 poll this week. It marked the fourth week the Cowboys received a vote. Before this season, McNeese never received a vote.

McNeese became the No. 1 ranked team in the Mid-Major Madness Small School Top 25 poll on Monday.