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ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – The Henderson State women's basketball team will hit the hardwood one final time in 2021 when, for the first time in nearly two years, the Bison of Oklahoma Baptist come to the Duke Wells Center Thursday, Dec. 30 at 5:30 p.m.
 
REDDIES REPORT
Henderson went into the Christmas break off its biggest road victory of the season, defeating the Harding Lady Bisons in Searcy, 82-78. Gracie Raby scored a career-high 21 points while Sonni Martin put up a season-high 20 points to lead HSU to victory.
 
The Reddie defense held Harding to its second lowest three-point percentage of the season at 12.5% (2-16) while Henderson connected on six of its 15 attempts from deep for 40%. On the season, HSU is shooting 36.5% from three while holding its opponents to 29.2%.
 
Jill Thomas' offense is yielding the highest field-goal percentage in the GAC at 45.2% and the third highest three-pointer percentage (36.5%). Karrington Whaley leads the effort from inside the perimeter with a conference-leading field-goal percentage of 65% while Lani Snowden is second in the league with a three-pointer percentage of 51%.
 
Oklahoma Baptist comes up just behind HSU in field-goal percentage with the Bison holding the second-best efficiency mark (43.3). Henderson's best field-goal percentage and league-second-best scoring offense (84.2 points per game) meets a Top-4 defense in the GAC in OKBU on Thursday with the Bison defense allowing 63 ppg.
 
Henderson is currently sporting a six-game winning streak over Oklahoma Baptist with the Reddies having not lost to the Bison in Arkadelphia since 2016. The last time these two teams met in Arkadelphia, Whaley scored a team-high 22 points along with pulling down 10 rebounds.  
 
SCOUTING OKLAHOMA BAPTIST
Oklahoma Baptist head coach Bo Overton is in his second year at the helm. After only winning three conference wins in his first season, Overton already has his squad one shy of that mark as his program brings a 2-2 conference record into the Duke Wells Center.
 
The Bison have won two of their last three games with wins over non-conference opponent Oklahoma Christian and GAC-foe Southeastern Oklahoma St. Their last game, however, showed a five-point loss to East Central in Shawnee, 61-56, despite outrebounding the Tigers, 44-33, and OKBU's bench outscoring ECU's, 17-7.
 
Kalifa Ford leads Oklahoma Baptist in both scoring (14.8 points per game) and rebounds (8.6 rebounds per game). The 5'10" junior has posted four double-doubles this season and saw a five-game stretch where she scored 12 or more points earlier in the year. Junior Mallory Lockhart is leading the league in three-pointers made per game (3.4).
 
What To Watch For…
-This weekend, the magic number for Karrington Whaley is six. Henderson's career-leader in blocks has 148 for her career. With six more, Whaley will pass Arkansas Tech's Cheyenne North for the sixth-most blocks in Great American Conference history. The fifth-year senior also needs six more rebounds to move into fifth place on HSU's all-time rebounding list.
 
-Ashley Farrar has scored in double-digits in every game this season, bringing her single-season streak to 10. With 10 or more points on Thursday, she will surpass Blue Jones' record of 10 consecutive games of double-digit points during the 2018-19 season, which is currently the second-longest streak in the Jill Thomas era. The record is held by Blue's sister, Pink, with 18 in a row during the 2017-18 season.
 
-Henderson St. has a chance to tie the best six-game start to conference play since Jill Thomas took over in 2013-14 with wins over Oklahoma Baptist on Thursday and Southern Nazarene on Saturday.