McNeese falls 69-62 at AMCC

CORPUS CHRISTI – Texas A&M-Corpus Christi outscored McNeese 15-0 in the final 6:59 of the first half, then rolled off 10 straight points late in the second half in a 1-point game to help hand it a 69-62 win over the Cowboys in Southland Conference action on Wednesday night.

The loss was the second straight suffered by McNeese (12-11, 7-5 SLC) as it was held to its lowest scoring output in league play and second-lowest on the season. Corpus snapped a two-game losing streak with the win and improved to 10-14 overall and 6-7 in conference action. It was also the 10th consecutive win over McNeese in the series.

Sha’markus Kennedy recorded his fourth straight double-double and 11th of the season with 16 points and 10 rebounds, Roydell Brown added 12 points and Sam Baker 10 to round out McNeese’s double-digit scorers.

The Cowboys hit just 5 of 17 from 3-point range with Dru Kuxhausen knocking down 2 of 5 to give him 95 on the season, the second-most made by a Cowboy in a single season.

AMCC had three players score 10 or more with Myles Smith leading the way with 19 points. Javae Lampkins added 15 and Perry Francois 11. The Islanders had 38 of their points come from the bench.

McNeese led 27-23 following a Jeremy Harrell free throw with 6:59 to play in the first half when the Islanders scored 15 straight points to take a 38-27 halftime lead. The Cowboys missed all eight of their shots and turned the ball over three times during that span.

Corpus went up 40-27 after hitting its first shot in the second half but McNeese clawed back into the game and cut the margin to 40-35 after a couple of Brown free throws, an A.J. Lawson fast break layup and Brown layup.

Brown, who scored eight of his points in the second half, pulled the Cowboys within 42-39 following another layup with 15:27 to play.

After falling behind by seven with 11:03 to play, McNeese scored six straight to cut the deficit to 50-49 following two Baker free throws with 7:21 to play. The Islanders responded with a 10-0 run over the next 1:48, capped with a three-pointer by Smith to build a 60-49 advantage with 5:33 remaining. The lead climbed to 67-53 with 1:59 to go while the Cowboys ended the game on a 9-2 run.

McNeese hit 22 of 49 from the field for 45 percent but was held to just 10 of 27 for 37 percent in the first half as Corpus took advantage of the misses by sinking 52 percent in the first 20 minutes.

The Cowboys will return home on Saturday when they host Central Arkansas at 3:30 in the H&HP Arena.