At least for one day, the Cowboys found paradise to their liking.

McNeese State opened play at the Paradise Jam Invitational in the U.S. Virgin Islands Friday by outgunning hot-shooting Illinois State, 76-68.

The win moves McNeese State into the winners’ bracket where they will play Longwood, an 89-81 victory over Alabama-Birmingham earlier in the day. The two will meet Sunday at 4:30 p.m. Lake Charles time at the University of the Virgin Islands.

ISU (3-2) will take on UAB Saturday.

Senior Javohn Garcia, splitting his time between the point and shooting guard positions, led McNeese (3-2) with 16 points and seven rebounds, but it was the bench that was the difference.

“Very proud of JG after a tough first half,” said McNeese head coach Will Wade. “In the second half he was tremendous.”

Garcia had just three points in the opening half, hitting only one of his five shots.

The Cowboy subs outscored the Redbird extras 27-13 with Sincere Parker leading the way with 13 points and DJ Richards adding 10. Of their 23 points, 19 of them came during the first half.

“You have to be ready when you go in,” said Parker. “I have to do a good job seeing the game when I’m on the bench and knowing what I can do to fix things.”

Brandon Murray also added 13 points while Christian Shumate finished with nine and seven rebounds for the Cowboys.

“We got a lot of contributions from a lot of guys,” said Wade. “Some of our guys played better today, some of our guys will play better on Sunday. That is something you need in these tournaments.”

McNeese played solid defense against an ISU team that made 20 of 40 threes in its last game. Hounding the Redbird shooters the Cowboys forced ISU into missing 15 of their 26 shots from long range.

ISU also missed on 8 of 21 free throws. That helped keep them from making any real run down the stretch.

The Cowboys made 20 of 26 from the free-throw line and 8 of 20 on 3-point attempts. 

“We were able to do that better in the second half,” said Wade. “There are still a lot of things we have to clean up but we are working on that.”

The Cowboys pulled away in the second and grabbed a 62-47 lead with 11:40 remaining after two Bryant Selebangue free throws ended an 8-0 run.

The Redbirds tried to claw back into the game and had the lead down to six (72-66) with 31 seconds remaining. However, Garcia and Richards hit two free throws each from there to kill any upset chances.

Sophomore Ty Pence led six ISU players who scored in double digits with 14 points while Mal Poindexter finished with 13.

McNeese came out shooting strong, hitting six threes in the first half to grab a 43-36 lead. The Redbirds had come into the game with the reputation of being a great shooting team from long range.

The two teams played things close for the first 10 minutes then Richards got hot for the Cowboys. He went on a personal 8-0 run over a 1:31 span to give McNeese a 25-18 lead. 

Richards hit two threes and two free throws during that time. 

After the Redbirds closed the gap to two at 25-23, the Cowboys went on a 12-3 run to lead 37-26 with 3:56 left. Omar Cooper’s steal and 3-point play capped off the run.

“We were able to get some stops there,” said Wade. “When we got stops and didn’t foul we were able to get our pace going.”

The lead grew to 15 (43-28) with 2:08 left before the break on Parker’s running layup. However, Ty Pence scored the final eight points on two threes of his own and a pair of free throws to bring ISU to within seven to start the second half.

“That was a good win against a good team from the Missouri Valley,” said Wade.