Cowboys drop 4 OT marathon game to HBU in finale

HOUSTON – McNeese scored a school record 144 points in Saturday night’s Southland Conference finale against HBU, but it wasn’t enough as the Huskies were five points better in a 149-144 four-overtime win over the Cowboys in perhaps the most fierce battle for fifth place in any conference standings in college basketball history.

Twice the Cowboys (10-21, 4-10 SLC) appeared to have the game wrapped up, first at the end of the second overtime period with McNeese leading 115-113 with six seconds to play and with Myles Lewis at the free throw line to seal the win but missed both attempts and HBU’s Darius Lee sank two free throws on the other end with less than a second to play to send the game into a third overtime tied 115-115.

At the end of the third OT, history appeared to repeat itself when Zach Scott knocked down a three-pointer with 0.6 seconds to play to put the Cowboys up 132-131. In the Southland Conference opener back on Jan. 10, Scott hit the game-winning trey against the Huskies with 0.5 ticks on the clock. However, an out of uniform Cowboy player came off the bench to celebrate with Scott, and since the horn did not sound, McNeese was whistled for a technical foul.

HBU’s Brycen Long hit the one shot tech foul shot to tie the game at 132-132 and send it to a fourth OT, the first of its kind in McNeese basketball history.

The Huskies outscored the Cowboys 5-1 in the final 19 seconds of the fourth period to get the win.

McNeese will go into next week’s Southland Conference Tournament as the No. 7 seed and will go up against a somewhat hot Northwestern State squad and play in the 7:30 p.m. game on Wednesday.

HBU (10-17, 6-9) gets the No. 5 seed and will play No. 9 UIW at 5 p.m.

McNeese freshman Trae English scored a career-high 27 points in 39 minutes of play, hitting 10 of 13 shots and 7 of 8 from the free throw line. He was one of eight Cowboy players to score in double-figures and one of only six that didn’t foul out of the game.

Zach Scott added 19 points while Kellon Taylor and Collin Warren each scored 18. Christian Shumate netted 16 with a team-high nine rebounds. Brendon Medley-Bacon and Myles Lewis scored 14 apiece and Johnathan Massie finished with 10.

HBU’s Darius Lee scored 52 points and was nearly unstoppable in the final two overtime periods.

McNeese shot 55 percent for the game (53 for 96) and 7 of 25 from long range for 28 percent. The Cowboys struggled at the line, hitting 31 of 45 for 69 percent. HBU sank 48 percent from the floor (46-95), 30 percent behind the arc (7-23) and 77 percent at the line (50-65).