Short-handed McNeese grinds out 80-75 win at NSU

NATCHITOCHES – McNeese scored 15 straight points late in the second half and held Northwestern State scoreless over a 6-minute span to come away with an 80-75 Southland Conference win here Saturday afternoon.

The Cowboys improve to 10-16 overall and 4-5 in league play while the Demons fell to 7-19 and 3-6.

McNeese played without three of its everyday contributors – Kellon Taylor, Collin Warren and Johnathan Massie, then lost a fourth in the second half when Harwin Francois left the game with a knee injury and didn’t return.

As a result, Trae English stepped in and scored a career-high 13 points in 31 minutes of action, also a career-high while managing the game as the point guard.

“Trae is a good play,” said head coach John Aiken. “I told him last week his moment is going to come and to be ready. He did a great job of managing the game and was able to get us into some things. He made some big plays for us and guarded really well.”

Zach Scott led the Cowboys with 21 points while Brendan Medley-Bacon and Christian Shumate each scored 14 to join English in the double-digit scoring line. Myles Lewis scored nine points while Francois added 8. Lewis added two steals, one which was the best pass of the game when he found Scott who buried a 3 to snap a 60-60 tie and extend the Cowboys scoring run.

After leading 42-35 at the half, the Cowboys grew their lead to 45-35 on a Scott 3 at the start of the second half. NSU scored the next five points and the teams traded scores until the Demons scored 11 straight to grab a 62-57 lead with under eight minutes to play.

NSU then went cold from the floor and the Cowboys heated up.

Trailing 66-61 with 6:36 remaining, McNeese went on a 15-0 run over the next 5 ½ minutes to build a 77-66 lead with 51 seconds to play.

During the run, the Cowboys defense held the Demons to 0-for-9 shooting and one turnover. McNeese connected on 3 for 4 shooting and was able to draw fouls by getting the ball to the glass and scoring nine points from the free throw line.

NSU made it interesting late by getting a couple of steals on McNeese inbound passes but the Cowboys were able to hit just enough freebies to secure the win.

“We only traveled eight guys today,” said Aiken. “Then Harwin went down and now we’re down another. I made a hard decision (suspending Taylor and Warren for a violation of team rules) but the guys didn’t buckle. It was a heck of a win.”

McNeese scored the first points of the behind a Harwin Francois three-pointer and led it 42-35 at the half after rolling off a 12-2 run in the final 4:25.

The Cowboys capitalized on a couple of buckets off of offensive rebounds and Zach Scott sank a 3 late to extend the lead.

McNeese will continue its road swing next Thursday at Nicholls and Saturday at New Orleans.