March 12, 2008

McNeese State tackles Sam Houston State in first round action of the Southland Conference basketball tournament Thursday at the Merrell Center in Katy, TX.

Tipoff is 2:30 p.m. and fans can listen to all action over CAJUN RADIO 1470 with Bruce Merchant calling the shots.

It's the second time that head coach Dave Simmons has taken his team to the tournament. Last year the Cowboys defeated UT Arlington in opening round play before bowing to eventual champion TAM-Corpus Christi in the semifinals.

The tournament seems to bring the best out in Cowboy senior Jarvis Bradley and that's exactly what McNeese could need to get off a two game losing streak on which they will enter the event.

Bradley has averaged 18 points and five rebounds in three previous tournament games. Last year he scored 23 points and pulled nine rebounds in the win over UTA and then scored 25 points in the loss to TAM-Corpus.

Senior John Ford will be playing in his fifth tournament game. In the previous four he's averaged 11.2 points and 4.5 assists per game.

Simmons is counting on these two seniors to lead the way as the Cowboys attempt to make it to the semifinal round of the tournament.

The Cowboys, 13-15, go in as the sixth seeded team while Sam Houston State, 22-7, is the third seed. Other first round games will have No. 2 seed Lamar playing No. 7 seed UTA at noon, No. 1 seed Stephen F. Austin tackling No. 8 seed UT San Antonio at 6 p.m. and No. 4 seed Southeastern Louisiana playing No. 5 seed Northwestern State at 8:30 p.m.

Expected to join Bradley and Ford in the Cowboy starting lineup are John Pichon, Rorey Lawrence and either Kleon Penn or freshman P. J. Alawoya.

The 6-11 Penn was injured (ankle) in the first minute of play in last Saturday's loss to Nicholls State and is on a day to day basis. He leads the conference in blocked shots and ranks among the top five in the nation (3.9 per game).

Bradley is the team's leading scorer with a 12.9 mark while Ford has a 10.2 average.

Thursday's meeting will be only the second between the Cowboys and the Bearkats this season. In an earlier outing in Lake Charles, Sam Houston posted a 64-49 win.

The teams have met three times before in the SLC tournament, the Bearkats winning two of those.