ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — Henderson State made a school-record 36 free throws on Monday night, including 29 in the second half alone, to outlast Ouachita Baptist for the third time this season 82-75 at the Duke Wells Center.
The win over the Tigers was the seventh-straight in the series for the Reddies (8-7), matching the longest winning streak by either side in the men's basketball edition of the Battle of the Ravine since 1962-1964.
Xavier Davenport had a career-high 15 points to lead HSU, while Malik Riddle added 15, Raekwon Rogers had 14 and Damian Dear chipped in 13 — 11 of which came at the line.
It was Ouachita who started the game hot on the road. The Tigers hit nine of their first 14 shots and jumped out to a 20-11 lead in the early going. Slowly but surely, Henderson began to find its footing. The Reddies got seven points in quick succession from Davenport, as well as a thunderous dunk from Rogers, to power an 11-4 run which trimmed the deficit down to just 24-22 at the 6:15 mark of the period.
OBU briefly extended its lead back out to five, 29-24, but HSU had an even bigger run in store, and finished the half on a 12-4 spurt to seize a 36-33 advantage at the break. Jeremiah Toney banked in a half-court heave at the buzzer to give the Reddies their first lead of the game.
The first portion of the second half slowed the game to a near-halt. Fouls came in bunches, primarily in Henderson's favor, as the Reddies went 13-for-19 from the line in the first 10 minutes of the period and opened up their largest lead of the night, 57-44, with 10:30 left.
With HSU still up by 13 points, 62-49, Ouachita began to claw its way back into the game. The Tigers got 3-pointers from Larenz Nero and Kobe Dunlap, as well as six-straight from Ma'darius Hobson, and put together a 16-3 run which tied the game at 65-65 with 4:28 remaining.
After seeing OBU erase its lead, Henderson answered with a 7-0 run of its own and got a 3-point play from Rogers, two free throws from Dear and a transition bucket from Yuri Swinford to retake a 72-65 lead. The Tigers closed the gap back to 72-70 at the two-minute mark, but much like the early portion of the half, free throws proved to be the ace in the hole for the Reddies.
Henderson was 8-of-10 from the line in the final 1:46 of the game and forced four OBU misses on the other end of the floor down the stretch to escape with its third-straight win and its third victory over the Tigers this season. Dear and Quawn Marshall each hit three free throws in the final moments for HSU.
The Reddies dominated the free throw battle and shot 47 compared to just 12 for Ouachita Baptist. OBU took 26 more shots from the floor than HSU, but Henderson out-rebounded the Tigers 40-29 and hit on 49% of its attempts from the field.
HSU plays its final regular season home game of the year on Thursday night when it hosts Harding at 7:30 p.m. in the Duke Wells Center.
