WEATHERFORD, OK. - DJ Franklin scored a career-high 20 points and Kaylon Tappin added 20 as well to help Henderson State hold off Southwestern Oklahoma State 97-91 on Saturday afternoon in the Pioneer Cellular Events Center.

Henderson got off to a great start on the road in Weatherford, and with the scored tied at 17-17, the Reddies went on a blistering 19-0 run, jump-started by 3-pointers from Tappin and Franklin, to seize a commanding 36-17 lead with 6:52 left in the half. SWOSU would not quit on its home floor though, and answered over the remainder of the half with a 19-8 spurt of its own to trim the Reddies' halftime lead to 44-36.

The Reddies gradually began to pull away again to start the second period and opened up a 78-60 lead with 11:25 to play and seemed to be in full control of the game. The Bulldogs had other plans, and began to rain down 3-pointers on Henderson as they used four of them in their 22-6 run over the next six minutes, which cut a once 18-point Reddies lead down to just 84-82 with 4:55 remaining. Needing to respond, Henderson got two big free throws and a layup from Chris Hawkins and another layup from Brad Nairn, which extended the lead back out to 90-84 with 3:23 to go. The Bulldogs continued to try and make it interesting down the stretch and used a 3-pointer from Devin Pugh to cut the Reddies' lead down to 92-89 with 44 seconds left, but Hawkins put in another layup after a press break and Kevin Kozan and Nairn made their free throws down the stretch to help Henderson finally pull away and win it, 97-91.

Franklin had a career-day for the Reddies and did not miss a shot from the field, going 8-for-8 and 4-for-4 from the 3-point line in his 20-point performance. Tappin also rebounded from a scoreless outing on Thursday to pour in 20 points for Henderson. Hawkins chipped in 17 points for the Reddies and Eric Dailey scored 13 as well to round out the double figure scorers for Henderson. As a team, the Reddies shot 54.8 percent from the field and were 20-for-24 from the free throw line in the win. The victory concludes the regular season for HSU, who finishes 16-12 overall, 11-11 in GAC play, and tied for fifth place overall in the GAC standings. Henderson's 11 conference wins is five more than in 2015-16 when the Reddies won six GAC contests.

The Reddies have locked up the No. 8 seed in the GAC Tournament next weekend in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and will play Thursday at 8 p.m. against top-seeded East Central.