McNeese Cowgirls advance in SLC Tournament with OT win over New Orleans

Lake Charles, LA (KPLC) - The McNeese Women’s Basketball team began their Southland Conference Tournament campaign on Monday with a first-round matchup against the New Orleans Privateers, who the Cowgirls beat just five days prior, also at the Legacy Center.

Five days earlier on Wednesday, March 1st, McNeese beat New Orleans 68-56 at the Legacy Center to close out their regular season with an 11-18 record overall, and an 8-10 record against Southland Conference opponents, earning them the six-seed in the Southland Conference Tournament, which began on Monday with McNeese once again taking on the Privateers, and it was another close game.

McNeese trailed 23-19 at the end of the first quarter but tied it up at 34 heading into the second half, and in the second half, it was more of the same. McNeese outscored New Orleans 20-18 in the third quarter, but then in the fourth quarter, it was New Orleans who outscored McNeese 20-18 as the two headed to overtime to open up their Southland Tournament campaigns.

In overtime, it was the Stephanie Guihon show as Guihon was doing it all for McNeese as she went for eight points in the five-minute overtime period, and thanks to her eight points, the Cowgirls outscored the Privateers 15-10 in overtime to win the game 87-82 to advance to the second round on Tuesday.

“Every time we got a lead, they came back, they fought their way back into it, we knew they had runs, we wanted them to have one run, it ended up being two or three.” Said McNeese head coach Lynn Kennedy following the game. “When we got down, I loved the fight in our group, and just the want to keep playing, you could see that, and you saw that especially when we got to overtime, when we got down, we could’ve let it just go away, and we didn’t, we wanted to fight back into it. Just proud of our team, and that’s what playoff basketball is all about, just win and advance, no matter how it’s done, and play for another day.”

McNeese Top-Performers:

• Kaili Chamberlin: 19 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals
• Desirae Hansen: 19 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block
• Divine Tanks: 16 points, 9 rebounds
• Stephanie Guihon: 14 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, 1 block

New Orleans Top-Performers:

• DeArica Pryor: 35 points, 4 rebounds, 4 steals
• Justice Ross: 11 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 steal

With the win, McNeese advances to the second round on Tuesday at 1:30 when they will take on Lamar.

In two games against Lamar this season in the battle of I-10 this season, the Cowgirls struggled in a big way, in Beaumont, McNeese fell 82-61 on the opening day of Southland play back on December 31st, and in Lake Charles on February 2nd, the Cowgirls fell 79-48.

The Cowgirls will look to get their revenge against Lamar on Tuesday, to keep their season going.

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