Cowgirls cruise past UNO

LAKE CHARLES—The McNeese women’s basketball team placed five players in double figure scoring and cruised to a 92-63 Southland Conference win over New Orleans here Tuesday to improve to 15-7 overall and 7-3 in the SLC.

“I thought we had good team chemistry today,” said head coach Brooks Donald Williams. “It was good to have Mercedes back in uniform. I thought she gave Jasmyn and everybody else a little break. That rotation was extremely important tonight.”

Seniors Jayln Johnson and Allison Baggett led McNeese in scoring with 17 points apiece. Johnson was perfect from the free throw line, making 9 of 9 and two 3-pointers while dishing out a game high eight assists. Baggett was 8 of 16 from the field including one 3-pointer

Joining the two seniors in double figures was Amber Donnes with 10 points, her third straight game with double figures. McNeese got 10 points each from reserves Hannah Cupit and Dede Sheppard. The 10 points for Cupit ties her season high while to 10 points for Sheppard is her career high. Cupit was 3 of 6 from the field with all three field goals coming from behind the arc. Sheppard was perfect from the field (4 of 4) and was 2 of 2 from 3-point land. Jasmyn Carswell led all players with a career high 14 rebounds. Carswell picked up 11 defensive boards and three on the offense. Rogers scored five points and grabbed three rebounds in seven minutes played.

“It’s been a waiting game for Dede to get more acclimated with the speed and coming back from her injury. She has been patient and I think tonight’s game gave her a lot of confidence. She and Hannah had specific roles tonight guarding UNO’s leading scorer in Randi Brown.”

Brown, who scored 39 points against the Cowgirls Saturday, was held to 18 tonight. Brown scored 11 first quarter points including UNO’s first eight of the game but was held to just seven points the rest of the game.

McNeese wasn’t going to let this game turn out the way the two previous games against UNO did, which went into triple overtime last season and then overtime on Saturday.

Brown gave UNO a quick six point lead on back-to-back treys on their first two possessions of the game but McNeese slowly began to chip away. Carswell’s jumper cut the lead to three points before Johnson tied the game at 10 all. Victoria Rachal put the Cowgirls up by three with a three midway through the quarter.

After UNO retook the lead on an Alexis Martin jumper for a one-point lead, McNeese went on small run to extend its lead to six. Brown would hit another three with 24 seconds left in the quarter but that would be the last point scored by UNO until 3:59 left in the second quarter. During this span, the Cowgirls went on a 15-0 run to open up an 18-point lead (37-19). McNeese would go on to outscore UNO 23-9 in the second quarter to take a 47-28 halftime lead.

McNeese held its double-digit lead the rest of the way and held its largest lead of the game 32 points with 7:08 to play.

McNeese ended the game with a 45.2 field goal percent, a 47.6 three-point field goal percent and a 94.1 free throw percent. The Cowgirls were 16 of 17 from the free throw line and scored 38 of their points in the paint and 28 points off 21 UNO turnovers. The Cowgirls also ended the game with only nine turnovers, the second lowest on the season while picking up their second most assists (22) of the season.

The Cowgirls will travel to Nicholls this Saturday for a 1 p.m. game that will be the first of three straight road games. McNeese will return home on Feb. 17 to host Central Arkansas at 6 p.m.