Cowboys chance at bye in doubt after loss to Islanders

LAKE CHARLES – McNeese’s chances of a first round bye in the Southland Conference Men’s Basketball Tournament dug itself a hole that’ll need a lot of help to climb out of after the Cowboys dropped a 65-53 game to Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Thursday night in the Legacy Center.

The loss was the third straight suffered by the Cowboys and seventh out of the last nine games as they fall to 10-19 overall and 4-8 in league play. The Islanders improved to 18-10 and 5-6 in the conference and now holds both a two-game lead over McNeese and the tie-breaker for the fourth and final bye in the March 8-12 tournament.

McNeese will need to beat UIW on Saturday and win at HBU next Saturday while the Islanders will have to lose their final three games (at HBU, vs. Nicholls, at UIW) in order for McNeese to snag away the No. 4 spot.

Kellon Taylor led the Cowboys with 12 points while Christian Shumate added 10. The Islanders were led by San Antonio Brinson’s 14 points and Simeon Fryer with 12.

Quoting Coach John Aiken:
“Very disappointing. We’re playing for a four seed. Basically it’s a playoff game because if you win, you’re sitting pretty good. Now you’ll have to play one extra game over there in the tournament. We’ll have to get lucky to get a bye at this point. Corpus has the tiebreaker over us so they would have to lose out.”

“It was one of those games that wasn’t our night for whatever reason. The last two games we have not shot the ball well from the three. We had some good looks. They just wouldn’t fall.”

Postgame Notes:
• McNeese was held to a season-low in three-point shooting percentage of 11.5 percent after making just 3 of 26 from long range.
• The Cowboys’ top three 3-point shooters (Zach Scott, Harwin Francois, Collin Warren) combined for just 1 for 16 from behind the arc.
• McNeese held a 44-42 advantage in rebounds against the league’s No. 1 rebounding team in conference games only.
• AMCC entered the game leading the conference with 15.8 offensive rebounds per game and was held to just 7 on the night.
• For the game, McNeese connected on 17 of 59 from the field for 28.8 percent while the Islanders hit 22 of 56 for 39.3 percent.
• McNeese made just 1 of 12 from the field in the final 8:36 of the first half.
• 1 of 13 from 3-point range in the first half.
• 23 first half points marked the least amount scored in the half this season.
• The Islanders won all three games against the Cowboys this season and runs their winning streak over McNeese to 13 consecutive victories.