CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — McNeese State’s leading scorer Allison Baggett got her points Saturday against Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. However, the same couldn’t be said for most of Baggett’s teammates.

A cold-shooting effort and a sluggish first half proved too much for the short-handed Cowgirls to overcome, as the Islanders rolled to a 76-65 basketball victory at Dugan Wellness Center.

McNeese (8-6, 2-1 Southland) not only lost its first SLC game this season, but also remained winless on the road in five tries.

The Cowgirls played without starting 6-foot-1 center/forward Frederica Haywood, who missed the game because of a death in her family.

“We just did not play very well and they played extremely well,” said Cowgirls coach Brooks Donald Williams, whose team knocked the Islanders out of last season’s conference tournament. “We knew they were going to be gunning for us. They played a fantastic game and we just didn’t rise to the challenge.”

The standout guard Baggett scored 16 of her game-high 26 points in the first half, but it wasn’t nearly enough to help the Cowgirls overcome an 18-point second half deficit.

“It was frustrating — we never could really get momentum going on our side,” said Baggett, who raised her scoring average from 16.4 to 17.1 points per game. “It’s tough when our shots aren’t falling, but they did a good job of attacking us and we didn’t reciprocate very well.”

McNeese shot 30 percent from the field in the first half (on 9-of-30 shooting) while falling behind by 13 points going into the half.

The Cowgirls didn’t come closer than seven points in the second half while finishing the game 22 of 57 from the field (38.6 percent).

While Baggett made 10 of 18 shots from the floor, the rest of the team combined to make 12 of their 39 shots.

It was also a particularly tough shooting game for Cowgirls’ second-leading scorer Jayln Johnson, who went into the game averaging 12.4 points per game. Johnson finished with two points on 1-of-9 shooting from the field in her 31 minutes.

A&M-CC (6-8, 2-1), meanwhile, shot 50 percent from the field (29 of 58) while also outrebounding McNeese 41-27.

Guard Shay Weaver scored 14 of her team-high 25 points in the second half for the Islanders, who also got 16 points from forward Camesha Davis and 15 points and 11 rebounds from forward Olivia Fouty.

McNeese center Ann Nwosah shook off a knee injury — she missed nearly 7 minutes of the second half because of it — to score eight of her 15 points in the final 20 minutes of play.

“I have no doubt that we’ll bounce back and learn from this game,” Williams said.

Cowgirls coach Brooks Donald Williams. (Rick Hickman / American Press)

Rick Hickman