McNeese basketball moves forward to rematch with Texas A&M-CC

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - When you win in an exciting fashion on such an emotional night as McNeese did on Saturday, it’s easy to get caught up in the celebration and bask in the glory for too long. The Cowboys now travel to Corpus Christi to face an Islanders team that took them down earlier this month.

“Well the great thing is we lost to Corpus Christi, you know,” Head Coach John Aiken said. “From a focus standpoint and a sense of urgency, it’s not hard to point back to ten days ago or whatever it was and remind our guys that hey, these guys beat us. Sometimes it can be tough after a win it can be tough to not get too high and to have that same desire and focus to work and be locked in when you’ve lost to a team within a week and a half or whatever it is, our guys will be keyed in and will be ready to go but now I am glad to have the emotional one out of the way and now it’s like the real season. Now is the time to start playing ball. The movie is over and it’s time to lock into a 13 game conference season.”

In their last meeting in the Southland Tip-Off event, the Cowboys led by as many as 10 points before fatigue caught up with them and allowed the Islanders to storm back for a 67 to 54 win.

“You know I think our game plan for them was good,” Aiken said, “I thought that was a game that we looked really worn down in the second half, I thought we didn’t play enough players in that game, I think we only played like 6 and a half guys total and so we just looked really tired and really worn down and they took advantage of us. We just have to come back with the right sense of urgency.”

The Cowboys will certainly have their hands full with a physical Islanders team when they hit the road on Thursday, but they are expected to return sharpshooter Harwin Francois back who missed their previous meeting due to injury.

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