PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Years from now when they talk about Thursday in their deep Bayou drawls in Lake Charles, Louisiana, they’ll remember this simply as “The Clemson Game.”

It won’t need greater description. People will know it was the Cowboys’ 69-67 win over the Tigers. McNeese State had never won an NCAA tournament game before. Their football team plays in the Championship Subdivision. Their athletic accomplishments are rarely noted outside of Lake Charles.

But on Thursday, “the Clemson game” will be noted from Juneau to Jacksonville and anywhere else that has bracket pools.

The NCAA men’s tournament doesn’t ever really begin until a 12 seed beats a 5 and McNeese State broke the ice for 2025, in the second game of March Madness’ opening window.

Before tipoff, few fans outside of the south even knew which state, McNeese was actually in. It’s one of those schools fans see coming across ESPN’s bottom-line score crawl and then forget about once the next score pops up.

Student manager Amir Khan, whose social media rapping videos have gone viral, was more famous than any of the actual players.

But every year, the NCAA Tournament shines its spotlight on the previously anonymous. That spotlight found the Cowboys on Thursday in Providence.

The tournament isn’t as romantic as it used to be. The players get paid and now many of them spread their careers over several schools. McNeese’s leading scorer in the game was in his fourth school in four years. But that’s all easy to overlook in the moment. When a little school with a big seed is leading a power conference favorite late, it’s impossible not to lean forward and pay attention.

The Providence subregional was a hot ticket because the night session featured three Hall of Fame coaches and a bunch of subplots between, but the early session may have stolen the show.

McNeese joined Mercer and Hampton and Northern Iowa and Vermont and so many others, whose names evoke mental snapshots of their shining moments.

Coming into the tournament, High Point (who lost to Purdue) was the trendy upset pick in Providence, while McNeese looked like a bad bet. For starters, Clemson was rolling. They entered the tournament with 15 wins in their last 17 games including an upset of Duke. On Wednesday, McNeese coach Will Wade, a controversy magnet throughout his career, admitted he’d had contact with North Carolina State about their head coaching vacancy. And shortly after that there was a report that he and the school had reached an agreement.

That report was sketchy and has been disputed, but it doesn’t always take fire to upset a team’s chemistry. Smoke will usually do the trick.

But instead of crumbling amidst the uncertainty, McNeese lived in the moment. Clemson lumbered out of the gate and McNeese blew past them. The Cowboys’ two-three zone defense befuddled Clemson into 10 first-half turnovers that McNeese turned into 15 points as they took a 31-13 lead.

“We’ve been saving that zone all year,” Wade said.

Brandon Murray got hot off the bench with 14 points in the first half and finished a season-high 21 in the game.

Clemson made it interesting. The Tigers shook off their halftime malaise and shot their way back in, making 8 of 15 3-pointers en route to 54-second half points. They went on a 12-3 run inside the final minute to get within three at 68-65 with 12 seconds left.

But Javohn Garcia, who began his career at UMass, finished off the Tigers by making one of two free throws to push the lead back to two possessions, essentially sealing the win.

The moment will be fleeting. They always are. Will Wade might be in Raleigh by Monday and some players might follow him out the door into the transfer portal.

And someone else, somewhere else will pull another upset snatching the nation’s attention away.

But at McNeese, this night – “the Clemson game” will be immortal.

“It still feels like a dream. I’m sure in a couple of days or when this all is over I’ll wake up and look back at it like, O.K., that really did happen,” McNeese guard Christian Shumate said, still beaming. “But right now we stay focused, we’re trying to keep on winning games and we got to this point and we’re looking forward and trying to get on to the next one and keep on moving forward. It’s an amazing feeling.”

• BETTING: Check out our MA sports betting guide, where you can learn basic terminology, definitions and how to read odds for those interested in learning how to bet in Massachusetts.