Playing their best 40 minutes of the season, McNeese State dropped a chance at pulling off a huge upset Saturday in the Legacy Center. 

And this is one that slipped right through their fingers.

Given late life Southeastern did what good teams do, they took advantage of it. 

The Lady Lions rallied from 18 points down early to force overtime and then used the extra five minutes to punish the Cowgirls for their late mistakes to pull out a 77-63 overtime victory.

This one is going to leave a mark on the young Cowgirls.  

“We ran out of gas in the overtime,” said McNeese head coach Lynn Kennedy. “We lost some confidence.”

Jalencia Pierre scored seven of her 21 points in overtime and Cheyanne Daniels had four of her 18 to lead the Lady Lions, who outscored McNeese 19-6 after regulation.

Southeastern made all seven of its shots from the floor during the extra five minutes. 

With the win the Lions kept a share of the Southland Conference lead at 4-0, 8-7 overall. McNeese fell to 0-4, 4-13, losing its sixth straight and eighth of their last nine.

“Our team stepped up today,” said Kennedy. “We just needed a few more minutes.”

Actually, the Cowgirls needed four less seconds.

Pierre’s three-point jumper with 3.5 seconds remaining in regulation tied the game at 58-58 and sent it into overtime. That shot came after a timeout and Kennedy’s decision not to foul despite being up by three.

“I thought we played it perfectly,” Kennedy said. “We had one person out of position and it cost us.”

The Cowgirls had their chances to put the game away but missed a layup and two free throws in the final 1:05 to open the door for SLU.

“I don’t think we gave it away,” said Kennedy. “We missed a couple free throws and a layup but we battled all night.”

The Cowgirls were led by Mireia Yespes who finished with 26 points and a career-high 14 rebounds. Freshman Azjah Reeves added a career-high 16 points and Emilia Tenbrock added 14.

The Cowgirls raced out to a 25-7 lead after one quarter and 35-26 at the half, but the Lions kept pecking away. After taking a 2-0 lead, SLU didn’t hold the advantage until the first seconds of overtime.

The Lions did manage to cut the margin to 45-40 after three quarters.

“This gives us confidence we can play with the best teams in the league,” said Kennedy. “We just have to be better in big moments.”