SEARCY, Ark. — In its final game of the year, Henderson State shot 54.5 percent from the field and held off a late Harding rally to defeat the Bisons 91-83 and secure its first sweep of Harding since 2005-06.
The Reddies got off to a good start and used 12 first half-points from
Kaylon Tappin, 11 from
Matt Panaggio and 57 percent shooting in the period to take a 46-36 lead at the break on the road.
The Bisons responded in the first ten minutes of the second half and used a 15-9 spurt to cut the Henderson lead down to just 55-51 with 10:30 to play in the game. With Harding the closest they had been since early in the first half, the Reddies responded with an 18-7 run over the next four minutes — which featured 3-pointers from Tappin and
Josh Jones, as well as seven points from
Eric Dailey — to open up their biggest lead, 73-58 with 6:15 to go.
Again, Harding refused to go away and used a barrage of 3-pointers over the final five minutes to trim the deficit down to just 85-79 with 42 seconds remaining in the game. Down six, the Bisons' Brandon Reeves went to the line for the 1-and-1. After hitting the first, Reeves missed the second, but the rebound was grabbed by Harding, who then drained a 3-pointer to quickly cut the lead down to 85-83 with 38 seconds to go.
On the ensuing inbound,
Matt Panaggio make a perfect deep pass to a running
Josh Jones, who got behind the defense and hit Tappin for a big dunk, which put the Reddies back up by four. Harding tried to respond with a quick 3-pointer, but Panaggio came up huge and blocked the deep shot from Tim Wagner, which deflected to Tappin who was fouled with less than 20 seconds left. Tappin made sure there would be no miraculous comeback, as he went 4 of 4 from the line in waning moments to seal it for Henderson.
Henderson was led by Tappin, who finished his illustrious career with the Reddies by piling up 28 points and becoming the first HSU player in ten years to score over 500 points in a season. Panaggio also finished his college career in style by racking up 17 points, five rebounds and four assists. Jones added 13 points and eight rebounds, while Parker finished with 12 points, five assists and four rebounds.
Brad Nairn, who also wrapped up his career on Saturday night, had six points and a couple of monster dunks to add to his collection.
The Reddies were out-rebounded on the night 35-30, but forced 22 Harding turnovers which led to 15 steals and 22 points for Henderson. The win at the Rhodes-Reaves Fieldhouse was the first for HSU since 2012-13. Henderson wraps up its season with a record of 14-14.
