ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — Henderson State had it going from the opening tip on Thursday night and rolled over regionally-ranked Southern Arkansas 82-63 in the Duke Wells Center for its second-straight win over one of the top teams in the Great American Conference.

Chris Parker led the Reddies with 18 points and four assists, while Mike Fofana added 17 — 11 of which came in the first half. Raekwon Rogers dominated once again on the interior for HSU and grabbed 13 rebounds, including eight on the offensive end, to go along with his 13 points. No other player on either team had more than seven rebounds of any kind.

It was all Henderson (14-7, 9-6) from the start, as the Reddies used eight quick points from Fofana to open the game on a 17-5 run. SAU (16-5, 11-4) gradually crept back and cut the deficit down to 26-20 with 7:17 to go until the half, but HSU put together another huge run over the remainder of the period, as nine points from Parker and seven from Jeremiah Toney off of the bench spurred an 18-6 finish and gave the Reddies a commanding 44-26 lead at the break. HSU shot 54.8 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes.

The start of the second half was more of the same, as the Reddies continued to control the game and eventually opened up their largest lead of the night, 63-38, on a 3-pointer from Parker with 12:28 to play.

The Muleriders scrapped and put together a 23-9 stretch over the next 10 minutes to close the gap to 72-61 with just under four minutes remaining, but they would come no closer, as the Reddies closed the game on a 10-2 run to put away one of their biggest wins of the year.

The Reddies' defense was smothering all evening long and held SAU, who was No. 10 in the latest D2SIDA Central Region Poll, to just 32.8 percent shooting from the floor and 3-for-21 shooting from beyond the arc. On the opposite end, Henderson shot 53.4 percent from the field and hit eight 3-pointers — four of which came from Parker.

Henderson plays again on Saturday when it will look for its third-straight win at Arkansas-Monticello with tip-off set for 4 p.m.