PROVIDENCE, R.I. – What a magical run!
 
The McNeese Cowboys, dubbed "America's Team" for capturing the NCAA March Madness world by storm, had its season come to an end on Saturday in the Round of 32, 76-62, to 4^th-seeded Purdue.
 
The loss ended McNeese's season a 28-7 while Purdue improves to 24-11 and will play in next week's Sweet 16 round in Indianapolis.
 
Sincere Parker led McNeese with 17 points while Javohn Garcia added 12. The Boilermakers had four players score in double-figures, led by Try Kaufman-Renn's 22 points to go along with 15 rebounds.
 
McNeese, who dominated the boards against Clemson in Thursday's first round win with 42 total rebounds including 18 off the offensive glass, managed just 24 rebounds, seven offensive, against the much larger Purdue team who finished with 41 rebounds, 12 offensive.
 
The Cowboys got off to a slow start and fell behind by double-digits six minutes into the game as their shots failed to fall while Purdue's were sinking and Boilermakers led 38-20 at the break.
 
McNeese shot just 31 percent in the first half but found its game in the second, knocking down 57 percent from the field including 5 of 9 from three-point range.
 
The Cowboys trailed 53-28 with 15:47 to play when it rolled off a 9-0 run that was started with a T'Johnn Brown driving layup. Brandon Murray added a second-chance tip-in and Parker drained a 3 to cut the margin to 53-35 with 12:54 to play. Murray added another layup on an and-1 opportunity to close the margin to 53-37 with 11:02 on the clock, but missed the free throw coming out of the media timeout.
 
Purdue quickly answered with one of its 11 threes in the game and answered every attempt at a McNeese rally to get back into the game.
 
The Cowboys outscored Purdue 42-38 in the second half.
 
Purdue connected on 45% for the game (23-51) and 42% from three-point range (11-26). The Boilermakers outscored the Cowboys 19-5 from the free throw line, hitting 19 of 23 while McNeese shot 5 of 13.
 
McNeese scored more points in the paint, 32-24 while both teams netted 16 points each off turnovers.