It was the kind of game only a mother could love, and only if her name was Mother Theresa.

But Dave Simmons and the McNeese Cowboys loved it anyway, because when you’re snapping a four-game losing streak it doesn’t really matter how you get it.

The Cowboys (7-9, 1-4 Southland) clawed out a 63-56 victory over visiting Abilene Christian at Burton Coliseum on Tuesday night to earn their first conference win of the season.

“Right now, we just really needed a win,” said senior forward Desharick Guidry, who had a game-high 21 points and career-high 16 rebounds. “It was an ugly win, but we needed a win in any shape or form that we could.”

The ugly showed itself via McNeese’s lack of success shooting the ball from the free-throw line and 3-point range.

The Cowboys endured an unthinkable stretch late in the second half where six different players combined to miss eight consecutive free throws.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that from any college team I’ve ever been on,” Simmons said. “But defense takes your legs. It took our legs and it took their legs.”

McNeese finished 17 of 36 (47.2 percent) from the line in the game.

That was considerably better than the showing from long range, where the Cowboys made just 2 of 20 3-point attempts.

But there was beauty hidden within the mess, and that was how McNeese played defense.

ACU (9-9, 3-2) came in averaging 69.6 points per game, but never had a chance to whiff that mark Tuesday night. The Wildcats shot just 32.1 percent (17 of 53) from the field, including a 21.7 percent (5 of 23) struggle in the first half.

ACU also struggled at the line, shooting 14 percent under its season average in making 15 of 24 free throws (62.5 percent).

“Defense is going to win us a lot of basketball games,” Simmons said. “They run good sets and execute very well. I think we met the challenge and made them work. When they scored, their kids were tired because we got after them physically.”

ACU leading scorer Parker Wentz, averaging 13.9 points per game, was limited to five points.

“Coming in we focused on defense and stopping their scorers,” said Kevin Hardy, who had 19 points and eight rebounds. “That was our focus coming in. If we could accomplish that, the game wouldn’t be pretty for them, getting other players to step up who aren’t used to stepping up in that situation.”

NOTES: McNeese changed its starting lineup for only the second time this season with Marcus Mathieu and Shaun Johnson starting in the backcourt in place of Jamaya Burr and Keelan Garrett. Burr came off the bench for 11 points and four assists… Austin Lewis had three blocks, making him the eighth Cowboy with more than 100 career blocks… McNeese beat ACU 95-91 in last year’s meeting.

(Rick Hickman/American Press)

Rick Hickman