Copeland leads with 18 points and McNeese goes back-to-back in Southland with 63-54 win over Lamar

LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — Quadir Copeland scored 18 points and McNeese defeated Lamar 63-54 in a cold-shooting, defensive battle on Wednesday, giving the Cowboys back-to-back Southland Conference Tournament championships.

The top-seeded Cowboys (27-6) will be making their fourth appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

The Cowboys led wire-to-wire. The lead was 31-22 with two minutes remaining in the first half before 3-pointers by second-seeded Lamar's Andrew Holifield and Alexis Marmolejos sparked an 8-2 run. McNeese led 33-30 at halftime.

The defensive battle continued in the second half as McNeese went 5 for 15 and Lamar 5 for 23 in the first 12 1/2 minutes after halftime. McNeese led 47-41 at the under-8 timeout.

Sincere Parker made four free throws to help the Cowboys maintain their lead over the next several minutes and they finally got their next made field goal on a dunk by Christian Shumate to lead 53-46 with three minutes remaining. Shumate's dunk was the Cowboys' last field goal attempt and they finished off the win with a series of 10 made free throws.

Lamar made two field goals in the last seven minutes, both in the final 47 seconds. McNeese made one shot in the final seven minutes.

For the game, McNeese shot 42% and Lamar made 31%.

DJ Richards had 10 points for McNeese before fouling out with 1:42 remaining on a double technical with Lamar's Errol White, who also fouled out.

Marmolejos scored 18 points, Holifield 15 and Adam Hamilton 11 for Lamar.

Lamar has made seven trips to the NCAA Tournament, the last in 2012.

___ Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here. AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-basketball-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball