Last Night in College Basketball: McNeese Grabs Share of Southland Conference Lead

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McNeese takes chance to show what it can do

It was an abbreviated night for college basketball on Monday after a jam-packed weekend where it seemed like every team played. So, it will be an abbreviated Last Night in College Basketball, as well, but this doesn’t mean there wasn’t anything worth recapping. For instance, McNeese is a team you don’t get to hear about all that often, since it so often plays when ranked schools are doing their thing, but is a pretty good squad itself. McNeese is 48th in the NCAA Evaluation Tool after Monday’s win over Nicholls State, a jump of four spots that landed them in the top 50, while KenPom’s rankings put them at 68th. Either way, that’s a possible tourney team at those numbers, and that’s without pointing out that it’s now tied for first in the Southland Conference at 7-1, along with Nicholls and Stephen F. Austin.

Neither of Nicholls nor SFA rank anywhere near McNeese in NET — Nicholls is at 184, SFA at 96 — so keeping pace in the conference is key. And McNeese did that on Monday by shooting 52% — including 11-for-23 from deep — while limiting the Colonels’ offense. Nicholls hit plenty from deep — 12-for-33 — but shot just 41% overall and couldn’t compete in the paint, where it was outscored by a dozen.

Freshman guard Larry Johnson was the standout for McNeese, with 24 points on 9-for-16 shooting and 10 rebounds — both game highs — in just 23 minutes. The bench provided all the additional insurance that was needed, with a trio of players — sophomore forward Jacold Fredson-Cole, junior guard Tyshawn Archie and senior guard DJ Richards — scoring 11, 13 and 20 points, respectively. The result? McNeese routed its conference rivals, 94-68.

Missouri’s shooting keeps them from ranked upset

The aforementioned abbreviated schedule was especially true on the women’s side, where there was a single college basketball game yesterday, with No. 21 Alabama visiting unranked bubble team Missouri.

There, Tigers’ junior guard Grace Slaughter did everything she could to force an upset over Bama, scoring a 23 points — tied for the game-high with Alabama’s senior guard Karly Weathers — on 10-for-18 shooting with a game-best 9 rebounds, and a steal and block each in a full 40 minutes. It wasn’t enough, however, thanks to poor shooting from the rest of Missouri. While Slaughter shot 56% for the night, the rest of her team went just 12-for-40, or 30%, and even a good defensive effort about the Tide isn’t going to do it when that’s the case.

Junior guard Abbey Schreake did her part on 4-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc for 12 points, but fellow junior guard Shannon Dowell scored 10 points on 18 shots — 3-for-13 for the night — sophomore guard Chloe Sotell went 0-for-5 with three missed threes, and senior forward Jordana Reisma managed 8 points on 2-for-6 shooting thanks to making 3-of-4 from the line. With no one on the bench stepping up to fill in for the three starters who couldn’t seem to shoot, Missouri couldn’t put together the sustained attack necessary to down Alabama.

The Tide’s true advantage, beyond the shooting woes of the Tigers, was their dominance of the paint. Alabama scored 42 points there compared to Missouri’s 26, and between that and holding onto the ball — the Tide turned the ball over just three times, while conversely their senior guard Ta’Mia Scott picked up 5 steals all on her own — Missouri had to be perfect to win. And it wasn’t, so, Bama won, 74-63.

New Orleans slips by Southeastern Louisiana

There are two things you can point to when figuring out how New Orleans defeated Southeastern Louisiana, 79-76, on Monday. One is the defensive effort of junior center Churchill Abass, who made his presence felt in the paint with 8 rebounds — 6 of them defensive boards — a Division I-high of 5 blocks, and 11 points. Then there was senior guard Coleton Benson putting the Privateers on his back on offense: he scored 30 of their 79 points on 8-for-18 shooting while nailing four 3-pointers and 10-of-11 free throws, including a three with just 2 seconds left on the clock to put New Orleans ahead for good.

Benson is the team’s leading scorer, but he’s not usually that level of offensive force. For the season, even including Monday, he’s scoring 15.8 per game, easily the highest of the Texas State transfer’s career. On occasion, he goes off, however: this 30-point outburst is actually his second-highest point total of the year, behind the 33 he dropped on Tulane on Nov. 14.

Ruffin led D-I in points and assists in shootout… loss

Jackson State guard Daeshun Ruffin had himself a game on Monday, leading Division I basketball in both points and assists. The senior put up 39 points on 13-for-29 shooting while going 11-for-12 from the line, and added 10 assists and 3 rebounds to that, as well. And, despite actually getting quite a bit of help from his teammates — three other Tigers scored at least 11 points, while four others outrebounded him — it wasn’t enough to defeat Alabama A&M in this SWAC matchup.

That’s because no one on Jackson State seemed capable of stopping the Bulldogs’ own offensive attack. Alabama A&M shot 52% as a team, 29-for-56, and sank 34 free throws in 43 attempts, as well. That kind of performance isn’t surprising, as Jackson State has allowed opponents to shoot 48.7% for the season, the 10th-worst rate among all 365 Division I men’s teams, while allowing an average of 89.4 points per game. Per KenPom’s Defensive Rating, Jackson State allows 115.4 points per 100 possessions, putting them 315th. That’s not quite as bad as the shooting percentage, but it’s still bottom tier, and it sank them once again on Monday.

Alabama’s Kintavious Dozier was the primary problem for Jackson State defenders, as the senior guard scored 31 points of his own to mostly counter the performance of Ruffin, while every other Bulldogs’ starter scored between 11 and 15 points and junior guard Gabe Kincy chipped in another 12 off the bench in 19 minutes. Senior forward PJ Eason managed a double-double with 12 points and boards a piece, and Alabama A&M would win, 100-91, thanks to this team-wide effort.

A successful replacement

Malek Abdelgowad crashed the boards last night, with the fifth-year forward from Southern pulling down a Division I-high 18 rebounds to go with 21 points, 2 assists, 3 steals and a block. Abdelgowad, who played his first two years in juco before moving to Murray State in 2023, then Massachusetts the following season before transferring to Southern this year, is getting his first real taste of playing time, and the results have been good. His 19.3 minutes per game are a career-high — he’s still mostly coming off the bench — but in that short time he’s averaging a career-high 7.4 rebounds and 12.4 points per game. 

On Monday, Southern ran him out there for 36 minutes despite not starting the game — he was filling in for senior forward Terrance Dixon, who started and played one minute before exiting for the duration — and the results speak for themselves. The Jaguars defeated Bethune-Cookman, 77-73, with Abdelgowad leading the team with a game-high 21 points — 9 of which came from the line — and those 18 boards, just under half of what Bethune-Cookman managed as a team. 

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