McNeese State won the Southland Conference Tournament the previous two seasons and at halftime of their semifinal game against Oral Roberts it appeared they would be in a position to play for their third straight trip to the NCAA Tournament.
That didn't happen as the Cowgirls were playing their third game in three days against a fresh ORU and they lost for the first time in three meetings this season. That's the bad news, well part of it as Ashlyn and Caitlyn Baggett are the lone seniors on the team however they accounted for almost half of their points this season
The good news is they have a very good nucleus coming back, Cecilia Okoye was very impressive throughout the tournament averaging a double-double for the event and gave me a glimpse of what I expect to be a monster senior year for her next season.
Although the Cowgirls are losing the Baggett twins, freshman Allison, their younger sister, showed she could light it up from downtown not to mention fellow freshman Jaylin Johnson coming up huge as well during the tournament and I watched both young ladies do a lot of growing over the season
Throw in Haily Jenkins, freshman for next season who led Martin's Mill to a state championship, and I'm thinking the Cowgirls will be in the hunt over the next few seasons