DURANT, Okla. — Henderson State got 17 points and 10 rebounds from Yuri Swinford on Thursday night, and cut a once 17-point deficit down to just four, but Southeastern Oklahoma State was able to hold on late and defeat the Reddies 85-80 at Bloomer Sullivan Arena.
The loss drops Henderson to 15-10 overall and 11-8 in the Great American Conference. The Reddies wrap up their final Oklahoma road trip of the season on Saturday when they face East Central at 3 p.m. in Ada, Oklahoma.
Swinford was one of four players in double figures for Henderson and finished 5-of-7 from the floor. Franck Kamgain had 14 points, while Tomislav Miholjcic finished with 13 and 10 rebounds, and Alvin Miles chipped in 12 and five assists.
Henderson trailed for the entire first half on the road in Durant. Southeastern Oklahoma got out to an 11-0 lead from the jump and hit their first five three-pointers to stretch it out to 21-7 at the 13:10 mark.
The Reddies did their best to hang around, and used a 9–3 run to trim the deficit down to 24–16, but the Savage Storm turned it up again offensively and opened a 46-29 advantage just minutes before halftime. HSU got two late three pointers from Swinford to cut into the lead, but went into the break trailing 49-37. SOSU shot 53.3% in the first 20 minutes of the game.
Southeastern extended the lead back out to as many as 16 early in the second half, but facing another big deficit, Henderson began to slowly chip away. The Reddies whittled the lead down to 10 and then finally were able to get it to single digits on a 3-pointer by Quawn Marshall with 9:53 to go. Marshall's shot made it 62-54 — the closest HSU had been since the first half.
Although the Reddies continued to scrap, the Savage Storm bunkered down after seeing their advantage cut to eight and were able to keep Henderson at arm's length down the stretch. Each time the Reddies trimmed the lead to single digits, SOSU found an answer to extend it back out to double figures.
Down 75-62 with 4:04 to go, HSU made one last big push and used a 15-6 run in the final minutes to get within 81-77 with 20 seconds left after a layup from Kamgain. Henderson had a chance to cut the lead down to one possession with seconds remaining, but ran out of time, as Southeastern iced the game at the line and held on to win it, 85-80.
Henderson never led on Thursday and shot just 14 free throws to Southeastern's 32. The Reddies were whistled for 27 fouls, including 14 in the first half, while the Savage Storm were called for 11 total in the game.
