Disappointment turned to optimism for McNeese State women’s basketball coach Lynn Kennedy.

After being upset at first with losing Saturday’s league opener to Houston Baptist, the Cowgirls’ first-year coach took a second look at the tape. That changed his mind, somewhat.

“Never happy losing but it was a unique situation for us and we felt like we let down the fans and community,” Kennedy said. “But when it took a longer look at everything, I was pleased with the effort and understood it came down to a series of three possessions.”

The Cowgirls fell to 5-10 overall while dropping the Southland Conference game at home in the Legacy Center. Now Kennedy hopes his group of young players learn from all that went on.

“We have a lot that we have to improve on but I saw a lot of good things Saturday as well,” said Kennedy. “One thing we need to do is keep up our intensity. We also have to be better in situations where we can expand the lead.

“We have to get a lead, keep a lead and learn how to expand the lead.”

The Cowgirls also found out that in the new arena you are going to get the opponent’s best shot.

“That changed overnight,” Kennedy said. “We want to be everybody’s rival. We want to have the bullseye on us. That’s the type of program we want here.

“That is the biggest take away from Saturday. It is a learning process and we want to be that team. It was good for us to see that. We now know what to expect.”

McNeese had its chance twice in the second half to take control of the game but let the Huskies rally back into things. Both times the Cowgirls were unable to extend the lead.

“This is a great learning experience for us, if we change things,” Kennedy said. “I’m not a big fan of using a loss to learn, but if we correct what we did wrong then great. If we don’t change it then it will just happen again.”

Cowboys

For McNeese men’s coach John Aiken, it was time to move on from Saturday’s emotional victory.

“You have to put that behind you and not get caught up in it,” said Aiken. “We have 13 more games to play in the league.”

The Cowboys used a Zach Scott 3-pointer at the buzzer to improve to 7-11 overall and send the Legacy crowd home happy. They may have also found another weapon.

Guard Collin Warren was moved off the point and given more of an opportunity to shoot, which he took advantage of. Coming off the bench, Warren finished with 21 points.

“We were looking to free him up,” Aiken said. “He is wired to think scoring first. This put him in a better situation.”

And it never hurts to get another scorer in the lineup.