ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — Henderson State hit a season-high 15 3-pointers and rolled over Harding 90-72 on Senior Night at the Duke Wells Center.
With the win, the Reddies improved to 17-11 and 13-9 in GAC play. HSU has won 13 or more conference games in three of the last four seasons.
The Reddies will be the No. 5 seed at the GAC Tournament next weekend in Shawnee, Oklahoma and will face No. 4 seed Southern Nazarene at 12 p.m. on Friday.
Five different players finished in double figures for Henderson on Saturday. In his final game at the Duke Wells Center, senior
Quawn Marshall led HSU with 15 points behind five 3-pointers.
Ryan Boyce had 14,
Alvin Miles added 13 — his 11th consecutive game in double figures — and both
Xavier Davenport and
Malik Riddle chipped in 10.
Yuri Swinford stuffed the stat sheet with 12 rebounds, eight points, five assists, four steals and two blocks.
Henderson led by as many as 13 points in the first half after a 3-pointer from
Josh Mason made it 34-21 at the 8:47 mark. Harding was able to finish the opening period on a run, however, and closed the gap to 45-40 at the break by outscoring HSU 19-11 in the last eight minutes.
The Bisons scored the first two buckets of the second half to cut the lead down to 45-44, but were unable to take the lead. With the Reddies in front 55-52, Boyce got going, and scored eight-straight points on two 3-pointers and a thunderous dunk to put Henderson up 63-52 with 13:50 to play.
Boyce's solo 8-0 run proved to be the turning point, as Harding never again got within single digits. Meanwhile, the big swing in momentum continued for HSU. The Reddie defense locked down the Bisons and allowed Harding just one basket over the next seven minutes, as a 3-pointer from
Graham Chenault stretched the Henderson lead out to 76-56 with 6:43 remaining.
The result was never in question down the stretch. Threes from Swinford and Marshall in the final minutes, as well as an alley-oop jam from Riddle, put the exclamation point on the Senior Night victory for HSU.
The Reddies out-scored Harding 31-4 in fast break points and 16-5 in points off turnovers. Henderson's 15 made 3-pointers were the most in a game for the program since it made a school record 16 against SNU back in January of 2020.
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