Not all rallies end in happiness.

McNeese State’s second-half comeback led to both hope and disappointment Friday evening in Katy, Texas.

Rallying from 16 points down, the Cowboys took a lead only to go cold down the stretch.

The result, an 83-78 Southeastern Louisiana win in the second round of the Southland Conference Tip-Off Event.

The loss dropped McNeese (5-10) into tonight’s third-place game against the loser of Friday night’s Nicholls State-Texas A&M-Corpus Christi game. Tip-off will be at 5 p.m.

The Lions (5-10) head to play the winner for the event’s title.

McNeese used a 17-1 run to grab a 68-67 lead on Johnathan Massie’s jumper with 7:59 remaining. But they could not keep the momentum going after that.

The teams battled to a 72-all tie 90 seconds later, but that’s when the Lions regained control.

Using a 9-0 run, the Lions grabbed an 81-72 lead fueled by Ryan Burkhardt’s sixth 3-pointer and only one of the second half, and four points from Gus Okafor.

McNeese rallied again, cutting the deficit to 81-78 with 1:43 remaining. But Okafor, who finished with a game-high 20 points, hit two free throws with 25 seconds left to end the Cowboys’ hopes.

Burkhardt, a graduate transfer, also had 20 for Southeastern.

Taylor finished with 18 points to lead the Cowboys while Zach Scott added 17 and Myles Lewis tossed in 15.

The Lions opened the game with a blistering first half of shooting. They made 18 of 29 shots from the field and a stunning 10 of 14 from behind the 3-point arc to build a 52-40 halftime lead.

Burkhardt led the way, hitting on all six of his shots from the floor. Five of those were 3s and all but one came in the final 10 minutes of the half. He had 17 at the break.

McNeese shot 61 percent from the field in the first half, but made 3 of 6 3-pointers.

A pair of Taylor free throws with 8:26 left in the half cut the SLU lead to 23-22. But the Lions hit the final six 3-point shots of the half to grab the 12-point lead.

The Cowboys shot 52 percent from the field (30 of 58) and hit 61 percent (14 of 23) in the first half. They connected on 5 of 14 (36 percent) from 3-point range and hit 13 of 20 (65 percent) at the free-throw line.

SLU shot 50 percent (26 of 52) for the game, 57 percent (13 of 23) from behind the arc and 86 percent (18 of 21) at the line.

McNeese owned a 37-23 advantage in rebounding and outscored the Lions 38-22 in the paint.