McNeese loses Roydell Brown for 2-4 weeks

LAKE CHARLES – The next few weeks for the McNeese Cowboy basketball team will tell how much guts this squad has because on Tuesday, it was revealed by head coach Heath Schroyer that standout guard Roydell Brown will miss at least the next two weeks of games, and possibly four weeks.

Brown suffered a grade three sprain with 9:15 to play in the second half in a 74-72 loss to Northwestern State this past Saturday. He left the game with 21 points and with the Cowboys on a 6-0 run.

“We’re down to seven scholarship players now,” said Schroyer whose Cowboys also lost graduate center Malik Hines a week ago who left the team for personal reasons. “Now we’re going to have to have some guys step up. But I will say this, we’ve had a couple of really good practices this week.”

McNeese will take its reduced roster to Stephen F. Austin on Wednesday for a 6:30 start. The game will broadcast live on ESPN+ and also on the McNeese Radio Network (Cajun Radio 1290 AM and CajunRadio.com).

The Cowboys have not won in Nacogdoches since Feb. 9, 2002 – a span of 12-straight losses at SFA’s Johnson Coliseum.

McNeese (7-16, 3-7 SLC) has dropped three straight games, but in those seven league losses, four of those were by five points or less.

SFA (12-10, 5-5 SLC) has dropped two of its last three games and is coming off an 82-67 home loss to Lamar this past Saturday.

GAME DAY NOTES:
• McNeese will be looking to win just its second game away from home this season. The Cowboys defeated UIW in San Antonio on Jan. 2 to open up the conference slate with a victory.
• SFA holds a 44-39 record against McNeese in the all-time series and are 8-2 against the Cowboys in the last 10 meetings.
• James Harvey has moved up to 24th on the school’s all-time scoring list, now with 1,141 points. He needs 7 points to move into 23rd and 28 to get to No. 22.
• SFA and McNeese are ranked 1-2 when it comes to home attendance average for overall and SLC only games. For overall games, SFA is averaging 3,523 fans while McNeese is averaging 2,256. In SLC only games, SFA is averaging 3,601 while the Cowboys are averaging 2,442.

NEXT UP:
• McNeese will stay on the road and will visit Southeastern Louisiana on Saturday at 4 p.m. The Cowboys will return home on Feb. 20 when they host Central Arkansas.