McNeese Aims to Win Conference Title Outright on Monday vs UTRGV

McNeese Basketball has already secured a share of the Southland Conference regular season title, but the Cowboys want more. On Monday night, they have the chance to claim the outright championship and lock in the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament.

The Cowboys are fresh off a strong 73-57 victory over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi on Saturday, completing a season sweep of the Islanders. Joe Charles led McNeese with 16 points, while Quadir Copeland added 13. DJ Richards Jr. and Sincere Parker each chipped in 10 points.

One thing has been made clear, McNeese isn't looking to share the conference title with anyone.

"We wanna win it. Winning by someone else's result isn’t how we do things around here. Nobody talked about celebrating 22 wins last year. We won 30. If I had told you we'd have back-to-back 22-win seasons when we walked in here, you’d have fallen out of your chair. You probably would’ve said I was a damn liar, but here we are—22 wins, back-to-back. That’s pretty good. There's nothing to scoff at, so I'm proud of our guys." - Will Wade

UTRGV comes into Monday’s game after falling 93-84 to Nicholls on Saturday. The Vaqueros have now lost two straight and five of their last six games. They are 14-14 overall and 6-11 in conference play, currently sitting just outside of the top eight spots needed to qualify for the conference tournament.

When these two teams met earlier this season on Jan. 25, McNeese dominated UTRGV with a 93-63 victory. Copeland led the way with 21 points, while Shumate and Charles each posted double-doubles. The Cowboys also hit 12 three-pointers in the game, including four from Richards Jr.

It will also be Senior Night on Monday and McNeese will honor nine players and three team managers. The seniors being recognized include Lamont Evans IV, Omar Cooper, Alyn Breed, Bryant Selebangue, Sincere Parker, Brandon Murray, Joe Charles, Javohn Garcia, and Christian Shumate, along with managers Landry Donham, Amir Khan, and Mitchell Eder.

Will Wade wants to win the conference at Home on Monday Night and send the Seniors out in style, but he also knows that there might be a chance that McNeese will be able to retain a few of the "seniors" on this year's squad...

"I mean, look, we don’t wanna share it. If we win on Monday, it’s in our control. It’s at home, on senior day, our last home game. We’re honoring eight different guys because of how the rules work now. I said it earlier on the Poke Cast, I’d rather honor someone twice than miss the chance to honor them once. We’re gonna honor eight guys and three managers. It would be a fitting way to win it at home." -said Wade

McNeese will host UTRGV tonight inside of the Legacy Center with Tip-off slated for 6:00. The game can be seen on ESPN+ with Tom Hoefer and Ron Hayes on the call of the game.