Henderson State opens Great American Conference play Thursday when the Reddies host Southern Nazarene at the Duke Wells Center with tipoff set for 7:30 p.m.
 
The Reddies enter conference play with a 1-1 record after beating Minot State last weekend 88-80, before losing to Nebraska-Kearney 85-66 at the Central Region Crossover.
 
Kaylon Tappin scored a game-high 26 points in the victory over Minot State to open the season and finished the weekend averaging 14.5 points in the two games. The junior from Little Rock led Henderson in scoring a year ago averaging 14.1 points per game.
 
Kevin Kozan averages 11.0 points after scoring a game-high 14 points against Nebraska-Kearney. The senior from New Lenox, Ill. is just 42 points shy of 1000 career points and needs six 3-point field goals to become the sixth player in HSU history to record 200 treys in a career.       

Toney Foster played in Henderson's loss to Nebraska-Kearney last Saturday and scored 14 points. The senior guard from West Monroe, La. played two years at Navarro Junior College where he averaged 11.7 points and 2.6 rebounds per game his sophomore season.

Southern Nazarene enters Thursday's contest with a 1-1 record following a 91-88 loss to Northern State and a 91-87 win over Minnesota State-Moorhead last weekend.
Coming off a year that it finished sixth in the Great American Conference, Southern Nazarene was picked to finish fourth in the 2016-17 season by the GAC coaches.

The Crimson Storm returns three of its top four scorers in LB Willis (15.7), Deshon Portley (10.9) and C.J. White (9.8). Both Willis and Portley each received an All-GAC honorable mention.
 
Portley recently earned GAC Player of the Week honors after averaging 24.5 points and shooting 57.7 percent from the field last weekend in the GAC/NSIC Classic. The senior from Plano, Texas went 7-for-14 from the field, and 4-for-9 from 3-point range while scoring 23 points against Northern State and then dropped 26 points while going 8-for-12 from the field and 6-for-9 from beyond the arc in a 91-87 win over MSU-Moorhead.     

Henderson State and Southern Nazarene meet for the 16th time in a series that dates back to 1976. 

The Crimson Storm won both games last year and have an 8-7 advantage in the series.           
The two teams have face one another eight times since joining the GAC and the series is even at 4-4.    
 
Thursday's double-header will be carried on 106.9 FM KYXK Arkadelphia/Gurdon with Robbie Aaron providing the play-by-play. Former Reddie player and coach Grady Bean will provide the color commentary.
 
The Domino's pregame show will air 5:15 p.m. with the women's game set for 5:30 p.m.

Live stats, audio and video streaming will also be available via the HSU Athletics website at www.hsusports.com.