Box Score
After trailing by three points at half, the Henderson State men's basketball team fell 78-68 on the road to East Central in Ada, Okla. on Thursday night in a Great American Conference matchup.

The Reddies (9-11, 6-8 GAC) drew first blood, and ran out to a 4-0 lead on a pair of Reggie Murphy layups, as the big man led HSU in scoring on the night with 25 points on 12-of-16 field goal attempts, while also pulling down 13 boards in a double-double effort.

Back and forth first half action ensued as ECU(15-6, 9-4 GAC) carried a 35-32 lead into the locker room at the break, with the Reddies knocking down 14-of-25 first half shots for 56 percent.

HSU would cool down to 48 percent shooting in the second half, making 13-of-27 attempts and 27-of-52 total for the game, finishing the contest shooting 52 percent from the field.

From the 15:23 mark and over the next eight minutes, ECU went on a 23-to-4 run and led by as much as 16.

After four technical foul shots from ECU's Stirling Thomas to push the Tiger lead  to 61-47, the Reddies mounted a furious comeback that fell just short, as the closest the Reddies would get would be at the 1:49 mark as Kelvin Dixon knocked down a three-pointer in transition to make the score 69-65 in favor of ECU.

The story of the game, however, was from the charity stripe, as ECU knocked down 31-of-47 attempts from the line to just 11-of-16 for HSU.

East Central turned the ball over just 14 times and was able to convert 26 Henderson State turnovers into 28 points.

Following Murphy's performance for HSU were three other Reddies in double figures.

Micah Walker contributed 12 points and 5 rebounds, while Aaron Cooper had 11 points and 5 boards.

Kevin Kozan pitched in 10 points, but was just 2-of-7 from the three-point line where he's found most of his scoring opportunities this season.

Stirling Thomas did most of the damage for the Tigers, as he canned 17-of-21 free throws and poured in 24 points to lead the way for ECU.

Henry Pwono also put up a double-double for the Tigers with 16 points and 11 rebounds.

Henderson State will return to action on Saturday, as the team will make the trip to Durant, Okla. to take on Southeastern Oklahoma in another GAC contest. Tipoff is set for 7:30 p.m.