McNeese rebounds for win
Published 5:58 pm Monday, January 19, 2026
While it wasn’t a must-win, it sure was needed.
Bouncing back from a bad showing two days earlier, the Cowboys salvaged the second half of their Texas Two Step Monday afternoon, dancing past Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 69-53, inside the Hilliard Center.
In a battle between the last four Southland Conference NCAA Tournament representatives, McNeese used its ability to drive the basketball to defeat the host Islanders. The 16-point margin was the largest Cowboy win ever in Corpus Christi, Texas, and just their fourth overall.
“A gutsy effort by our guys,” said McNeese head coach Bill Armstrong. “We knew it would be a physical, physical game. A gutsy, gutsy effort.”
The plan for McNeese was to attack the basket and not settle for quick three-pointers.
“We talked about attacking the paint and finishing through contact,” said Armstrong. “And we wanted to finish at the free throw line.”
The Cowboys did that, hitting 18 of their 26 free throws, going 9-for-11 in the second half. McNeese also won the battle of the boards, 39-19, including 14-5 on the offensive glass.
That led to 19 second-chance Cowboy points to just four for the Islanders.
“Their second-chance points were a big part of the game,” said Corpus Christi head coach Jim Shaw. “They came in here with a chip on their shoulders, and we knew they would.”
The Cowobys were upset 79-76 last Saturday at Texas Rio-Grande Valley, which did not sit well with them as it knocked them out of a first-place tie in the Southland Conference.
McNeese improved to 15-4, 8-2 in the Southland, a half game behind Stephen F. Austin, which played late Monday night against Nicholls. The Colonels entered the home contest tied for second with McNeese.
Corpus Christi fell to 10-9, 6-4.
Larry Johnson led the Cowboys with 17 points and nine rebounds, both game highs. He was 7-for-10 on free throws.
Carl Cherenfant and Tyshawn Archie each finished with 13 points. It was Cherenfant’s most points against a Division I opponent this season, and he added seven rebounds, four on the offensive end, to his resume.
“I thought Carl played his best game of the year,” said Armstrong. “Everybody on the stat sheet performed well.”
Jerrell Colbert added eight points on 4-of-4 shooting from the floor before fouling out. Sheldon Williams was the only Islander in double figures with 13.
After the teams started the game going back and forth with the lead, Kam Parker’s 3-pointer gave the Islanders a 19-15 lead with 8:12 left in the first half. It would be their biggest lead of the game.
McNeese finished the half outscoring Corpus Christi 25-13 from there. Archie’s 3-pointer, the only one the Cowboys hit in the half, gave them a 40-32 lead at the break.
Corpus never got closer than seven points in the second half as the Cowboys kept grinding away. They stretched their lead out to 64-49 with 5:18 to play on a pair of Cherenfant free throws.
Moments later, Garwey Dual put the game on ice with two dunks as McNeese’s defense didn’t allow the Islanders to hit a 3-pointer (0-for-6) in the second half.
Over their last 14 possessions, the Islanders scored just two times as McNeese turned up its defense to finish things off.
McNeese will be home for the only time in the current six-game stretch next Saturday when the Cowboys host New Orleans in Townsley Law Arena at 4 p.m.
McNeese will then go back on the road for the following three games.