Box Score
Kevin Kozan's back-to-back 3-point field goals midway through the second-half lifted Henderson State to a 56-50 win over Southeastern Oklahoma, Saturday at the Duke Wells Center.
With Henderson State leading 32-31 with 12:42 remaining, the freshman guard drained a pair of long-range jumpers to help direct the Reddies to their second straight home win.
In a low-scoring affair, the two teams played to a 27-27 tie at the break in a half that had 13 lead changes.
Both teams started off slow in the second-half with Henderson not scoring its first-field goal until
Ronald Lawson gave HSU a 31-29 lead five minutes into the final 20 minutes.
Henderson's next field goals would not come until Kozan's pair of trifectas which ignited the Reddie offense.
The Reddies, 10-11 overall and 6-7 in the Great American Conference enjoyed their largest lead at the 8:54 mark after
Taylor Smith and Aaron Harwell each had short jumpers to make the score 44-35.
Southeastern, 5-12 and 3-9, cut the deficit to 50-47 following a pair of free throws by Quinton Threadgill.
With 1:25 left to play and 1 second left on the shot clock,
Deoirvay Johnson took a
Ronald Lawson inbound pass and drained a 25-footer from the right wing to push the Reddie lead back to six.
Threadgill answered with a 3-point field goal of his own 10 seconds later, but free throws by Smith and Kozan down the stretch put the game away for the Reddies.
Kozan and Johnson finished with 14 points each to lead the Reddies with Kozan hitting 4-of-6 shots from 3-point range and Johnson going 4-of-7 from beyond the arc.
Smith had 11 points and 7 rebounds for the Reddies.
The Reddies finished the game hitting 17-of-40 shots from the field for 43 percent, while SEOSU was 20-of-58 for 35 percent.
The key to the game was at the foul line as Henderson converted on 82 percent from the charity stripe making 14-of-17 attempts. The Savage Storm converted on just 4-of-8 attempts.
The Reddies travel to Bethany, Okla. on Thursday to face Southern Nazarene with tipoff set for 7:30 p.m.
