After earning the one seed and double-bye in the Southland Conference men’s basketball tournament, the McNeese Cowboys welcomed the Lamar Cardinals to the Legacy Center. The Cowboys took an early lead with a presence in the paint and never trailed in the game as they moved on to the Southland Conference Tournament Championship with a 76-57 win over the Lamar Cardinals.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Christian Shumate had the crowd roaring in the first few possessions of the game with a couple of thunderous dunks. Omar Cooper got the defensive rebound and passed to Shumate for the alley-oop on the fast break, then Shumate came back on the next possession with another slam less than two minutes into the game.
McNeese continued to attack the paint as Javohn Garcia, Shumate, and Antavion Collum all had layups with Collum’s make drawing a foul on the play. Shahada Wells also got in on the action and made his first made shot after Terry Anderson had a left-handed layup for the Cardinals. The Cowboys were up 12-6 with 14:50 left in the first half.
After a two-minute scoring drought by both teams, McNeese went on a 13-2 run to extend their lead. It began with Wells getting into the paint, then CJ Felder’s defender hit the floor and he was able to get the two-hand slam. Felder also assisted on Wells’ next shot before a timeout while Garcia and Well made the game’s first two jump shots midway through the first half. Garcia’s layup gave Will Wade’s team the 25-9 advantage with under eight minutes to play.
Ja’Sean Jackson and Anderson ate into McNeese’s lead a little with three total three-pointers by the two Cardinal players to make it a 10-point difference. Wells however responded with a three of his own with less than three minutes left. The rest of the scoring in the first half revolved around free throws as McNeese headed into the locker room with the 39-24 lead.
Coming out of the break, Shumate repeated with his did to start the semifinal matchup and that’s getting another slam dunk. Wells matched the score with an and-one layup and then scored again after a timeout on the floor. DJ Richards and a pair of free throws by Wells put McNeese up 51-31 with 14:24 left in the second half.
The Cardinals cut down their deficit with a 13-4 run that began with a right-wing three from Chris Pryor. Jakevion Buckley had an and-one layup, and then Anderson and Cody Pennebaker came back with back-to-back threes.
Richards responded with a three from the left wing which began a big run for McNeese as we got into the back half of the second half. Felder got another dunk after a couple of shots from the charity stripe for Anderson and Wells attacked the paint on the fast break to put the Cowboys up by 20 with 6:21 to go in the game.
A couple of minutes later, Wells and Shumate checked out for the final time of the game with the game well in favor of McNeese but not before Wells knocked down a couple more free throws to extend his team’s lead.
Lamar was able to knock down another couple of shots but McNeese held on the whole way through to defeat and eliminate the Cardinals with a 76-57 win to advance to the Southland Conference Championship.
BIG NUMBER: 48
The McNeese Cowboys made it a point of emphasis to dominate the paint on both ends of the floor. Head coach Will Wade’s squad outscored Lamar in the paint 48-12 and their largest lead was 22 points while also never trailing in the contest.
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Shahada Wells
Wells ensured it was his time to shine in the semifinals, finishing the game with 27 points on 9-19 shooting. The senior guard also recorded five assists and four steals in the 76-57 win over Lamar.
UP NEXT: The McNeese Cowboys men’s basketball team will play for the Southland Conference title tomorrow afternoon. They will play the winner of Texas A&M Corpus-Christi and Nicholls. Tip-off in the Legacy Center is set for 4:00 p.m.