ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — Henderson State erased a 13-point halftime deficit on Monday night and took the lead with under five minutes to play, but Southern Nazarene ended the game on an 11-4 run to hold on and defeat the Reddies 56-50 at the Duke Wells Center.

Tomislav Miholjcic and Quawn Marshall each finished with 10 points to lead HSU in scoring. Damian Dear had eight off the bench and Yuri Swinford pulled down 10 rebounds.

The Reddies (11-6, 7-4) fell behind after a cold-shooting first half at home. HSU was just 8-for-24 (33%) from the floor in the opening 20 minutes and went over six minutes without scoring late in the period. Southern Nazarene capitalized and hit six first-half 3-pointers — including one at the buzzer — to take a comfortable 34-21 advantage into the break.

Henderson flipped the script quickly to open the second half and used three-straight baskets from Miholjcic, as well as a three-point-play from Marshall, to string together a 9-0 run and trim the SNU lead down to 34-30 at the 15:04 mark. Defensively, HSU began to lock down on the other end. SNU started the second half 1-of-10 from the floor and went nearly seven minutes without a field goal to open the period.

Although they rapidly erased the big deficit, the Reddies found it difficult to overtake the Crimson Storm lead over the next 10 minutes. Henderson got within a single point on five different occasions, but each time SNU was able to keep its lead intact with a score or a stop.

HSU finally broke through with 5:18 remaining when Ryan Boyce knocked down a jumper to put the Reddies in front 46-45. It was the first lead of the game for Henderson. Southern Nazarene responded to its first deficit by scoring the next four points and regaining a 49-46 advantage with 2:54 to go.

A layup by Marshall at the 2:30 mark once again got the Reddies within a point, 49-48, but SNU was able to keep HSU at bay once again, as two free throws and a 3-pointer late in the shot clock from Jalen Lynn pushed the Crimson Storm lead back out to 54-48 with just 1:22 to play.

Marshall scored again on the other end for Henderson, who decided to play the ensuing possession out while trailing 54-50. The Reddies came away with what looked like a stop on a shot clock violation with 35 seconds left, but the violation was not called, and SNU grabbed the long rebound. The bad break proved to be the dagger for Henderson, who did not score again and fell, 56-50.

The Reddies defense had a tremendous second half and limited Southern Nazarene to 30% shooting from the floor. HSU held SNU to 11 points over first 15 minutes of the period, but the Crimson Storm found their stroke late and scored another 11 in the final five minutes to win it.

Henderson will get another shot at the Crimson Storm on Thursday night, when it travels to Bethany, Oklahoma at 7:30 p.m.