ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — After falling behind to rival Ouachita Baptist with four minutes left on Tuesday night, Henderson State finished the game on an 11-4 run to rally past the Tigers 71-64 and notch a program-record 15th conference win.
The Reddies (19-7, 15-5) had led for most of the night, but with 3:56 to go in the game, OBU got a layup from Morgan Miller, which capped a 7-0 run, to take a 60-59 lead — its first lead since it was 35-34 at the halftime break.
At that moment, senior
Bree Bossier took over for Henderson and scored back-to-back layups on nifty post moves to push the Reddies back in front 63-60 with 2:36 to go. After a Lady Tiger bucket made it a one-point game, HSU answered with a back-breaking 7-0 spurt. Bossier again got a contested layup to go in the post to push the lead back out to three, then
Hailey Estes — who had struggled from the field for most of the night — buried a 3-pointer from the corner off of a
Haleigh Henson assist to stretch it to 68-62 with 1:04 to play.
In desperation mode, OBU (13-13, 9-11) missed on a 3-pointer, and instead of pulling it out to run the clock on the ensuing fast break, Bossier cashed in on her fourth layup of the final three minutes to make it an eight-point game with 37 seconds left. The three-straight buckets proved to be too much for OBU to overcome, as Bossier hit one final free throw to ice the game and send the Duke Wells Center into the off-season in style.
Bossier finished with a flourish for Henderson and got her seventh double-double in nine games with a 13-point, 13-rebound effort.
Blu Jones chipped in a career-high 17 — 15 of which came in the first half — and Henson wrapped up her time at the Duke Wells Center with 15 big points and three assists.
Henderson jumped out to a 12-4 lead in the game's opening moments and led 17-13 after one quarter, but OBU out-scored the Reddies 22-17 in the second period to lead 35-34 at the half. HSU regained the lead in the opening seconds of the third quarter and never relinquished it again until the Lady Tiger's late run.
The Reddies shot 47.3 percent from beyond the arc on the night and hit nine 3-pointers but held the Lady Tigers to just 29.1 percent shooting from the 3-point line. HSU also out-rebounded a bigger OBU squad 39-36. Henderson's 15 GAC wins this season sets a new program record for conference wins in a single season, surpassing the 2005-06 team which won 14 games in the Gulf South Conference.
HSU's next game is Thursday at 5:30 p.m. against Southern Arkansas in Magnolia, Arkansas.