LAKE CHARLES, La. – Holding the East Texas A&M University men's basketball team to just two points through the first six minutes of Friday night's game, the McNeese Cowboys took a 102-66 win at the Townsley Law Arena.
 
Friday was the Southland Conference opener for the Lions, who have lost their conference opening game for the third year in a row and drop to 5-5 overall, while McNeese is now 9-2 overall, including 2-1 against Southland opponents.

Falling behind 15-2 at the at the 14:23 mark of the first half, the Lions got the deficit down all the way to seven on a 9-3 run but could not cut into it further as the Cowboys led 59-29 at the half. McNeese's largest lead in the game was 46 points and it came at the 7:12 mark of the second half. 
 
In the game, the Lions committed 22 turnovers, and the Cowboys scored 27 points off those turnovers. East Texas A&M was held to shoot 41 percent from the field, while McNeese shot 56. From outside the three-point arc, the Cowboys went 13 for 24, while the Lions went 7 for 28.
 
The only scorer to reach double digits for the Lions was Noah Pagotto (Wollongong, Australia), who totaled 16 points along with three rebounds. Gianni Hunt (Lakewood, Calif.) had team-best five rebounds.  
 
McNeese had the 42-28 advantage in rebounding. Four Cowboys scored in double digits, led by 24 points on 9 for 11 shooting from Tyshawn Archie, while Larry Johnson had 17.
 

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East Texas A&M continues SLC action at Southeastern on Monday at 6 p.m.