After sleepwalking through most of the first 30 minutes Monday night, the McNeese Cowgirls dominated the final 10 to eke out a 60-57 win over Houston Baptist.

Amber Donnes gave the Cowgirls the lead with a 3-pointer with 46 seconds left to make it 55-54. It was McNeese’s first lead since the opening minute of the Southland Conference game at Burton Coliseum.

“I hadn’t been hitting at all, I had been struggling all night,” Donnes said. “But I knew Jayln (Johnson) was there and told myself to stay ready.”

McNeese (8-5, 2-0) made 5 of 6 free throws in the last minute to maintain the lead.

Houston Baptist (6-7, 0-2) led by as many as 12 in the second half, and were up by 11 after Cowgirls head coach Brooks Donald Williams was called for a technical foul midway through the second half.

After the technical, McNeese outscored HBU 30-17.

Johnson sparked the late surge, scoring 13 of her team-high 16 points in the second half.

“We started attacking more, being more aggressive,” Johnson said of the late run.

Williams said she didn’t make any changes after her team came out flat to open the game.

“We didn’t change anything, we just started looking like ourselves,” she said.

“We came out with zero energy. Hannah Cupit came in and did a good job rotating. We had some other girls check in — Mercedes Rogers, Ann Nwosah, Alaina Verdin and some others — and they got our energy flowing. Then we started playing like ourselves.”

Williams said winning ugly showed her young team is growing.

“In some ways, I am more proud of this win than Saturday’s (win over Stephen F. Austin),” she said. “Things didn’t click like they did Saturday. We didn’t play well, but we still found a way to push out a win. Two weeks ago, we would have lost by 25.”

Houston Baptist opened the game with a 16-6 run, making 8 of its first 11 field goal attempts while holding the Cowgirls to 2 of 13 shooting.

The Husky lead grew to as much as 13 midway through the half. The McNeese offense found its rhythm late in the half, producing points on five of the final eight possessions of the half.

The Cowgirls closed the half with a 7-2 run to cut the deficit to 31-24 at halftime. HBU made just one of its final seven shots of the half after opening with 12 makes on 16 shots.

Shanice Steelholdt led HBU with nine points in the first half and finished with 19 points and 15 rebounds.

McNeese’s Alaina Verdin puts up the shot over Houston Baptist’s Heidi Sihvola Monday night during the Cowgirls comeback victory

Rick Hickman