This could be the one that got away.

All Saturday afternoon McNeese chased mighty Stephen F. Austin up and down the Burton Coliseum floor.

Matching the Lumberjackets shot for shot, the Cowboys were trying to send a statement to the Southland Conference’s top team and the rest of the league at the same time.

Maybe one to the 1,417 fans as well.

But there would be no end to SFA’s conference winning streak, which raised to 21 straight. Instead, the final big plays were made by the team that has been making them for the past two years.

So instead of pulling off the upset in the league opener for both teams, the Cowboys will instead have to settle for a moral victory.

That doesn’t work for them anymore.

“We are trying to win a conference championship,” said senior guard Kevin Hardy, who brushed aside any notion that keeping games close matters to this team.

Instead, they will have to settle for finding out just where they stand against the Lumberjacks after an 80-75 defeat.

McNeese has proven it can put on a good show and play with some of the better teams around. But can they win these games has yet to be proven.

That is the next step to be taken. One thing is for sure: this group believes it can take that next step. They were not looking for any pats on the back, but rather a notch in the win column.

“It is disappointing that we lost,” Hardy said. “Coming into the game we knew we could beat this team.”

The loss seems to have only added to this club’s resolve.

“This made us even more hungry,” said guard Shaun Johnson, whose four 3s and 12 points off the bench in the second half fueled the Cowboys attack.

This team has come a long way since we last saw them on this court. Twelve days earlier the Cowboys laid a Christmas egg in a 30-point loss to Central Michigan.

On that night there was no fire, no passion and no fight. They never came close to matching their opponent’s intensity.

Not so yesterday. When push came to shove against Stephen F. Austin, the Cowboys pushed back harder and longer.

“It was like night and day,” Cowboys coach Dave Simmons said comparing his pre-holiday team to the one he saw play Saturday. “I thought we matched their physicality.”

That was obvious in the second half when SFA tried to pull away on two separate occasions only to have McNeese rally to close the gap and eventually tie things up at 73 with 58 seconds remaining. They did that by hitting the boards and taking the ball to the rim.

“We had to regroup and match their physical play,” Simmons said. “I’m proud of the way we did that.”

Nobody was better than senior Keelan Garrett, who was left open by the Lumberjacks defense and he took advantage, scoring a career-high 26 points. For him, there was no backing down.

“We feel like we can beat any team on any night,” Garrett said. “We just have to finish down the stretch. That’s our biggest thing.”

Standing up to the bully was never in question, but beating him is a different story.

“Of course we wanted to knock them off the top,” Johnson said. “We all believe we can beat that team.”

Unfortunately they didn’t and, because of the Southland’s 13-team format, the two clubs won’t play again until the SLC tournament at the end of the season, if even then.

“We look forward to playing them again,” Hardy said.

It has been a strange first 12 games to this Cowboys season. Some ups, some downs and some hope for a strong finish.

It has been a lot like yesterday, when we saw some good, some bad and ultimately not enough from McNeese.

They have told us they have learned from these games and are prepared to make a run at the conference crown.

They showed us a glimpse of how far up the mountain they have gotten already. Now they have to show us they can get themselves over the top.

Close gives fans something to talk about, but also leaves them wanting more.

They can’t afford to let another opportunity like Saturday’s slip away.

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Jim Gazzolo is managing sports editor. Email him at jgazzolo@americanpress.com

(Rick Hickman/American Press)

Rick Hickman