Hoping to stop a recent trend, the Cowgirls will look for a fast start in a hostile environment.

McNeese State hits the road to play its first Power Five foe under first-year head coach Lynn Kennedy.

The Cowgirls (3-3) will look for their second road win of the season when they take on 5-1 Mississippi State in Starkville at 6 p.m. today.

“This is a good chance for us to see where we are at against a very good team,” Kennedy said.

Kennedy said McNeese is looking for consistency as it starts a five-game road stretch that will include games at Cal and Oregon. The Cowgirls have one home game remaining this calendar year, a Dec. 22 battle with Louisiana Tech.

That will also be the last game at Burton Coliseum as McNeese officials said their plan is to move back into the on-campus Legacy Center after the first of the new year.

“These games are good for us to learn how to play against quality teams in touch situations,” Kennedy said. “If we want to play in the (NCAA) tournament these games will prepare us for that.”

Kennedy said his goal is to make McNeese a solid mid-major program that gets national attention. Playing well against Mississippi State would be a nice start toward that goal.

And a nice start is what the Cowgirls would like to show. They have struggled out of the game of late, especially with the shooting portion of their game.

In the last two outings McNeese has started 1 of 13 and 1 of 12 from the floor.

“We have to get off to better starts than that, especially against the better teams,” Kennedy said. “I like the way we have played and how we are coming along, we just have to start shooting the ball better.”

McNeese has beaten Mississippi State in the past, but it was a long time ago. The Cowgirls knocked off the Bulldogs 80-76 on Dec. 17, 1980. They have lost the last two meetings, the most recent a 94-52 loss in 2007.

Junior forward Rickea Jackson leads Mississippi State in scoring at 19.8 points a game. JerKaila Jordan averages 17.5 and sports a team-best 15 3-pointers on 32 tries.

Freshman Kaili Chamberlin leads the Cowgirls in scoring at 11.3 a contest and has 39 points over the last two games. Desirae Hansen (10.8 ppg) is the only other Cowgirl in double figures.

Divine Tanks leads McNeese in rebounds at 8.3 a game and has a combined 31 in her last two games.