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ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – After a brief break from league play, Henderson State returns to the GAC portion of its schedule when it heads to Searcy, Arkansas, to take on the Harding Lady Bisons in a game that will feature a pair of 2-1 teams in conference. The pre-Christmas contest inside Rhodes-Reaves Field House is set to tip-off at 5:30 p.m.
 
REDDIES REPORT
The Reddies come into the GAC showdown off their highest scoring game since 2010 when they put up 112 points against Bacone College on Wednesday inside the Duke Wells Center. As a team, Henderson posted a season-high 25 assists, led by Ashley Farrar with a career-high six dimes.
 
In the 63-point victory, Lani Snowden surpassed Linda Lyle for third most made three-pointers in program history with 177 after going 5-for-9 on the evening. The Van Buren High School product is shooting 52.2% on 46 attempts from beyond-the-arc, which is second in the GAC, while Henderson as a team is shooting 36.3% from long range.
 
Karrington Whaley saw yet another double-double against the Lady Warriors with her 14-point, 10-rebound performance, giving her four double-doubles in her last five games. In those last five contests, the fifth-year senior from Springdale, Arkansas, is shooting an insane 78.8% (35-45) from the field, bringing her season average to 64.9%.
 
With HSU having four players averaging over 11 points per game (Ashley Farrar, Snowden, Whaley, Gracie Raby), the Reddies' high-flying offense is averaging the second-most points per game of anyone in the league at 84.4 points per game while holding opponents to 66.8 points per game. Henderson is Top-4 in both field-goal percentage and three-point percentage.
 
Henderson has made a habit of getting off to hot starts in its games, seeing its largest point differential in the first quarter, 196-140. In nine games, HSU has won six first quarters and tied in one of them. Jill Thomas' group also prides itself on coming out of halftime strong as they have won the third quarter 206-158 so far this season.
 
The Reddies appeared to get over the Lady Bisons hump last year with two wins over the in-state rival, plus a near-third victory that saw HSU with a late lead before overtime was needed to announce Harding the six-point winner. Prior to last season, Harding had won four of the last five meetings. Last year's victory over Harding in Searcy was HSU's first since 2016.
 
SCOUTING HARDING
The 6-2 Lady Bisons began non-conference play 4-1 and have gone 2-1 in conference with wins over Southern Arkansas and Arkansas-Monticello while losing to Ouachita Baptist. Its two losses came on the road as Harding is undefeated at home this season.
 
The force that has been Karrington Whaley will go have to go up against one of the best forwards in the league in Sage Hawley. Where Whaley has posted four double-doubles in the last five games, Hawley is averaging a double-double and has posted six consecutive double-doubles.
 
From the field, Harding is shooting 43.6% for third best in the GAC but it is only shooting a conference tenth-best 28.9% from three. On the other side, the Lady Bisons are allowing opponents to shoot 42.4% from the field and 33.9% from beyond-the-arc. Harding as a team is allowing 74 points per game and is scoring an average of 76.5 points per game.
 
What To Watch For…
-Farrar has scored in double-digits every game this season. With her scoring streak at nine games in a row, if she scores 10 or more points on Saturday, she will have the most consecutive games of 10 or more points since Blue Jones in 2018-19. The record under Thomas is 18 in a row set by Pink Jones during the 2017-18 season.
 
-Whaley has 679 career rebounds at HSU. Whaley can crack the Top-5 career rebounding leaders in program history with 13 rebounds this weekend, which will put her past Rachel Keeton's number of 691 that she set in 2003.
 
-With a 7-2 start through the first nine games, a win on Saturday would give Henderson its best start through 10 games since 2018-19 when HSU opened with a 8-2 record. The Reddies finished that year 18-11 overall and saw them claim the fifth seed in the GAC Tournament.