Henderson State University held a lead over visiting Delta State University on Monday night at the Duke Wells Center from the opening tip all the way until the final few seconds of the game as the Reddies (1-1) fell victim to a heart-breaking, last-second knocked down shot that gave the Statesmen (2-1) the win, 94-92.

It was the only time in the game that the Statesmen held a lead over the Reddies.

The Reddies, who were coming off of a blowout win this past Friday against Shepherd Tech, came out against Delta State and were red-hot from the beginning of the game. Junior guard Dee Johnson got the Reddies on the board first as he hit a trifecta in the game's opening minute. Sparked from the trey, the Reddies would sprint out to a quick 13-0 run to start the game. A jumper in the paint gave the Statesmen their first points of the game at the 15:48 mark in the first half. Before the Statesmen recorded that first bucket, the Reddies defense forced them to commit five turnovers and miss their first four shots.

The Statesmen slowly began to work themselves back into the game in the first half and cut the deficit to as little as two on a couple of occasions. With the score 19-17 in favor of the Reddies with just over 10 minutes left in the opening period, the Reddies went on a quick 9-0 run in about two minutes of game time to take a 28-17 lead with 8:07 remaining in the half. Delta would pull back to under double digits, but the Reddies carried an 11-point lead into the locker room.

In the first half the Reddies shot 42 percent (15-of-36) from the field, but were an impressive 47 percent (8-of-17) from long range. Five of those eight made three-pointers came from the hand of junior guard Denzel Lyles. Lyles also led all scorers with 17 first-half points. Junior forward Andrew Ensley was also a scoring machine in the first half as he poured in 15 points.

Coming out of the break, the Reddies got back to work on the offensive end and extended their 11-point lead into a 19-point lead within the first three minutes of the second half. Throughout the first 12 minutes of the second half, the Reddies held a double digit lead. As in the first half, the Statesmen slowly worked themselves back into the game.

With 5:07 remaining in regulation, Delta State's Aaron Cooper canned a three-pointer to pull them to within two points, 82-80. Back-to-back layups by HSU's Jonathan Fitzgerald over the next minute and a half extended the Reddies lead back to six points, 86-80.

A thunderous dunk by junior center Matt Nicholson brought the Wells Center crowd of 624 to a fever pitch as the Reddies doubled their two-point lead over the Statesmen, 88-84. From there both teams would trade fouls and each made both attempts to keep the margin at four points, 90-86.

With just over a minute remaining in the game, Delta State got back to within two points, 90-88, on a made layup by Sylvester Collins. A steal by the Statesmen with under a minute left led to a transition dunk that tied the game at 90-all. That was the first time all game that the Reddies did not hold a lead.

A missed layup by HSU's Dee Johnson was cleaned up by Nicholson on the put back to give the Reddies a two-point lead, 92-90, with 24 seconds remaining in the game.

On the Statesmen ensuing possession, the Reddies' Andrew Ensley committed a foul with 16 seconds in regulation to send Aaron Cooper to the line with the chance to knot the game once more. Cooper was true on both attempts, and the game was once again tied, this time at 92-all.

With the shot clock off, the Reddies could take the final shot of regulation and possibly come away with a dramatic win. The Reddies came up the court with the ball in Lyles' hands. The guard had already scored 21 points in the game and drove the lane looking for his 23rd points in the game. The layup by Lyles with 7 seconds remaining came up short and Delta State's Cooper came away with defensive board. Now with possession, Cooper drove the length of the court and pulled up for a potential game-winning field goal. The attempted shot by Cooper found the bottom of the net with just under a second remaining on the game clock.

The Reddies still had a chance at the very end as a length of the court football pass was caught by Dee Johnson, who was able to get off the game-tying shot, but the shot was long and the Statesmen escaped with the 94-92 win.

The heart-breaking loss comes as five Reddies scored in double figures. Ensley had a team-high 25 points, followed by Lyles with 21 points. Jonathan Fitzgerald and Josh French came off the bench and contributed 14 and 10 points respectively. Dee Johnson also finished the game with 10 points. The Reddies as a team forced 19 total turnovers and came away with 12 steals, but they were out-rebounded 47-33.

As part of their second half comeback, the Statesmen shot 59 percent (19-of-32) from the field.