The 12-seeded McNeese State Cowboys rode a 31-13 halftime lead to an eventual 69-67 victory over the Clemson Tigers for their first NCAA Tournament win in program history.
Cowboys head coach Will Wade opened the postgame press conference by discussing how the team’s smothering defense helped propel them to victory.
“Our first half was pretty flawless defensively,” he said. “We’ve been saving that zone all year. We hadn’t played the 2-3 zone all year. We put it in for some stuff in the conference tournament, and we never used it. We thought this would be a good time to pull it out. Our guys did a great job executing.”
Wade then explained how the Cowboys had a carefully devised game plan for the Tigers.
“Under [Brad] Brownell, I think they’re 4-15 when you can assist on 12+ baskets, and they shoot under 53% from two and under 38% from three, so we hit all three benchmarks,” he said. “We hit all three of the benchmarks that it takes to beat them. Luckily, we gave ourselves enough margin in the first half that we could withstand their run in the second half.”
Senior forward Christian Shumate finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season. He described how it felt to lead McNeese to its first-ever NCAA Tournament win in his fourth season at the school.
“It still feels like a dream,” he said. “I’m sure in a couple days or whenever this all is over, I’ll finally wake up and kind of look back at it like ‘okay, that really did happen.’ But, right now, we’re staying focused. We’re going to keep on trying to win games. We got to this point, and we’re looking forward, and we’re trying to get on to the next one and keep on moving forward. But, it’s an amazing feeling.”
Victory Royale. @Fortnite #EpicPartner pic.twitter.com/A82ml4jrJT
— Amir Khan (@amirk_23) March 21, 2025
Syracuse University transfer and McNeese junior guard Quadir Copeland was previously 0-4 against the Clemson Tigers, but that all changed on Thursday.
“Oh man, it feels amazing, especially doing it with these guys,” he said. “I went to war with them all summer. To be able to be in this spot, and to beat Clemson especially… To beat them in this situation, on this stage, it’s amazing. But, it’s got nothing to do with beating Clemson. We could’ve beat any team in here.”
Senior guard Brandon Murray, who averaged 7.6 points per game coming into this matchup, exploded for 21 points including 14 in the first half.
“I think we just had a mindset from the jump,” he said. “Everybody was looking upon us like we were just going to fold and everything. I think we just went out there and took the first punch, and they just didn’t know how to react to that, honestly.”
“Everybody deserves this,” Coach Wade concluded. “They’ve gone all in on our basketball program since the day we got there. Everybody deserves it. They all thought we were a little whacky when we did it, but hey, who’s laughing now.”
On Saturday, McNeese will face the fourth-seeded Purdue Boilermakers at Amica Mutual Pavilion in Providence, Rhode Island. That game is scheduled to start at 12:10 p.m. EST.
