McNeese MBB hopes to turn it around in final nine games

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - It’s been a rough season for the McNeese Men’s Basketball team as they’re just 2-7 against conference opponents, and are 5-17 overall, but it didn’t start out that way for the Cowboys. For the first time since 2017-18 McNeese began the 2022-23 Southland Conference schedule 2-0, but that’s where it all went down hill, they’re 0-7 in games since with three of those games being by five points or less.

Now, the Cowboys are halfway through the Southland Conference schedule as they’re nine games in, with nine games remaining, which means they have the chance to turn it all around, and in order to turn it around, they’ll have to play well against their rival Lamar, who they’ve already beaten twice.

“It’ll be nice to be back here for Lamar, we’ve played them twice already, and so we’re obviously familiar with them, having two wins over them, but it’s hard to beat a team three times in a year and so we addressed that with our team and I know they’ll be fired up ready to play, I know they have a couple of really good wins, they beat Nicholls and they beat Corpus (Christi) so they’ve got two really good wins in the conference and obviously we’re fighting like heck, every game is a playoff game for us right now and so it’s a great opportunity for us to start the second half at home” said McNeese head coach John Aiken on Tuesday.

The Cowboys sit at ninth in the Southland Conference with nine games remaining, which means there is significant work to do in the home stretch of the season as only eight teams make the Southland Conference Tournament, which is hosted at McNeese’s Legacy Center, which makes all of the Cowboys’ remaining nine games must-wins.

“They understand the moment, but they also understand there’s a lot of games left, with a bunch of teams that we’re fighting in the ladder, like I said, the first half didn’t go our way, for a lot of reasons, but there’s nine games left, and five of those nine are at home, so we get to respond here, and see what kind of metal we have, see what we’re made of, and I think our guys will show you a good response this week” said coach Aiken.

The Cowboys’ game against Lamar will tip-off on Thursday at 7:30 at the Legacy Center.

Copyright 2023 KPLC. All rights reserved.