McNeese State ran its winning streak to a season high four games here Sunday afternoon in a 66-56 Southland Conference basketball victory over Stephen F. Austin.

With Dontae Cannon and Patrick Richard leading the offensive chart, the Cowboys' "Iron men seven" led from the 14:25 mark in the first half as they lifted their record to 11-10 overall and to 7-2 in league playing, remaining in a tie for first place in the western division of the conference.

Cannon, led the game with 22 points while Richard chipped in with 18 in pacing the Cowboys.

"I thought that Dontae had a very good game," said Cowboy head coach Dave Simmons of his point guard.

"He kept the game under control and he got some key points for us.

"This was a very tough opponent we played."

SFA dropped to 12-10 overall and to 6-3 in the western division of the conference standings.

This was also the first victory for the Cowboys over the Lumberjacks in the past two seasons.

McNeese had only seven players available for play in the game because of injuries and only one didn't get into the scoring column.

Joining Cannon and Richard were Jeremie Mitchell with 12 points, Desharick Guidry with six, Kevin Hardy with five and Adrian Fields with three.

McNeese held a 26-21 halftime lead but had been up by as many as 10 points on three occasions. The Cowboys knocked down only 30 percent of their shots in that first half (10 of 29) but rebounded with a 56.3 shooting percentage in the second half (9 of 16) and canned four of eight three point shots.

In that second period Cannon scored 13 of his points while Richard had 10.

The largest McNeese lead in the second half was by 17 points at 62-45 with 1:30 left.

SFA had four double figure scorers with Antonio Bostic getting 13 and Jeral Scott, Desmond Haymon and Taylor Smith scoring 10 each.

The Cowboys held a 30-28 rebounding edge and Richard led with six. The Cowboy senior also had four assists to lead the game while Guidry was the pace setter in steals with five.

This coming week McNeese plays only one game, that on Saturday (Feb. 11) at Central Arkansas.