SEARCY, Ark. — Henderson State had five players score in double figures on Saturday evening, but Harding hit 13 3-pointers and led from start to finish to defeat the Reddies 89-77 at the Rhodes-Reaves Fieldhouse.

The Reddies (6-2, 2-1) never led in the contest and found themselves in a hole early thanks to a 9-0 Harding run to open the game. HSU answered with an 18-11 stretch over the next 10 minutes to cut the lead down to 20-18, but the Bisons closed the half with an 18-10 spurt of their own and carried a 38-28 advantage into the break. Henderson shot just 30.6% from the field in the opening 20 minutes.

HSU got the first two buckets of the second half on layups from Raekwon Rogers and Anthony Lupardus to trim the deficit to 38-32, but once again Harding had an answer, and used an 11-3 run over the next three minutes of action to seize its largest lead, 49-35, at the 15:50 mark.

Although the Reddies continued to scrap, and brought the lead back down to single digits on two occasions thanks to 60.7% shooting over the final 20 minutes, the Bisons never truly allowed them within striking distance, as they hit eight second half 3-pointers to hold off Henderson for their first conference win of the year.

Rel Johnson led HSU with 15 points on the night, while Xavier Davenport had 11 and Chris Parker, Mike Fofana and Chris Owens each chipped in 10. Harding shot a scorching 44.8% from the 3-point line in the win, including a mark of 50% in the second period.

Henderson returns to action next Saturday, Dec. 14, when it travels to Monticello, Arkansas to face UAM at 4 p.m.