ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Henderson State fought all the way back from a 16-point first-half deficit, taking the leading briefly late in the second period, before Ouachita Baptist prevailed in the season's first basketball Battle of the Ravine Monday night, 74-69.

The Reddies got 62 points from four players, with Alvin Miles leading the charge with 19 points, including 15 in the first half, on 7-of-9 shooting and a perfect 2-for-2 from behind the arc. Franck Kamgain backed up Miles with 16, eight of which came at the free-throw line. 

Henderson took much better care of the ball in the back-half of the contest. After hurting itself with 11 turnovers in the first 12 minutes of the 40-minute contest, HSU totaled just six the rest of the way as part of their comeback. The Reddies once again out-rebounded their opponent, 35-28, yet made just four three-pointers compared to OUA's nine. 
 
Henderson started out the game hot, jumping out to a 5-0 lead while forcing a pair of Tiger turnovers. But things got cold real quickly for the visiting Reddies, as they proceeded to go on a six minute and 58 second scoring drought, which saw Ouachita Baptist jump out to a 15-5 lead.
 
A three-pointer from Miles stopped the bleeding, which lifted the lid of the basket for HSU somewhat, though turnovers began to plague Henderson. At the under-eight media timeout, the Reddies had more turnovers (11) than points (9) as OUA began to lay it on, 22-9.
 
With the game in danger of slipping away before the first half even expired as HSU stared a 31-19 deficit in the face, Miles took over a struggling Reddie offense, scoring nine of his 15 first-half points over the final 180 seconds of the opening 20 minutes to bring the margin back to single digits, 39-30.
 
Ouachita Baptist scored the first five points of the second half with the Reddies not getting their first field-goal until nearly four minutes into the return of play. Jimmy Elgas' bunch did not waiver, going on an 8-4 run to close the gap to eight with 14:45 on the clock. An and-1 from Kamgain got the small section of Reddie fans within Bill Vining Arena into the action as the margin stood at five.
 
Moments later, a steal-turned-dunk from Zyon Patterson made it a one-possession ball game for the first time since the 15:07 mark of the first half. Baskets were traded over the next few minutes before a Josh Mason three-pointer gave the game its first unprecedented tie since the first few minutes of the game. Again baskets were traded until a Mason steal turned into another fastbreak bucket, this time from Kamgain, to give Henderson its first lead since the 16:40 point of the opening frame, 63-61.

With there being just under five minutes left in regulation, Ouachita Baptist came down and hit a massive three-pointer to retake the lead that sent the crowd into a frenzy. From there, whenever HSU got within one or two, the Tigers used a massive bucket to keep the Reddies at arms length. That trend continued until the final buzzer, with Ouachita taking the five-point victory.

Henderson St. (8-9, 5-6) will go on its second Oklahoma road trip this season when it heads to Ada, Oklahoma to take on the East Central Tigers Thursday, Jan. 26 at 7:30 p.m. The Reddies will finish the Sooner State roadtrip with Southeastern Oklahoma St. Saturday, Jan. 28 at 3 p.m.