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ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – With seven games remaining in the 2022-23 regular season, Henderson State takes the long road trip out west to Weatherford, Oklahoma as it seeks a much-needed win against Southwestern Oklahoma State from the Pioneer Cellular Event Center Thursday, Feb. 9 at 7:30 p.m.
 
REDDIES REPORT
Henderson suffered consecutive home losses by a combined five points this past weekend inside the Duke Wells Center, falling to then-No. 20 Southern Nazarene, 58-54, before getting edged out by Oklahoma Baptist, 80-79. Against the Bison, HSU fought all the way back from a 17-point deficit late in the second half before coming up a point shy.
 
The Reddies delivered one of their best offensive showings of the new year against OKBU Sunday. On top of scoring 79 points – the most points since meeting Lyon College on January 2 (82) – HSU also made its most three-pointers since winning at Oklahoma Baptist back on January 5 while also dishing out 16 assists, which is the team's most assists since that same game against Lyon two days into the new year.
 
Starting point guard Alvin Miles was a big reason for Henderson's offensive turnaround, as the Memphis, Tennessee native tied his season-high of eight assists following his six-assist performance against the Crimson Storm two days prior. Miles is second in the GAC with 4.0 assists per game and is fourth with a 1.7 assist-to-turnover ratio.
 
The Reddies find themselves currently tied for ninth in the conference standings with the eight-team GAC Tournament just over three weeks away. Henderson's two opponents over the next three days are Southwestern Oklahoma State, who is one game ahead of HSU in the standings at 6-9, and Northwestern Oklahoma State, who is tied with HSU at 5-10 in league play. After this weekend's games, three of Henderson's final five opponents are among the Top-5 in the current ranks.
 
In the season's first matchup against SWOSU, Henderson was battling illness with several of its starters as HSU fell to the Bulldogs, 75-70. The last time the Reddies defeating Southwestern was actually in Weatherford back on Jan. 8, 2022 as Malik Riddle led all scorers with 17 points off the bench to lead the way for the 80-70 victory.    
 
SCOUTING SOUTHWESTERN OKLA. ST.
Southwestern has experienced a similar past week to the Reddies as SWOSU has lost its last two games by single digits with the most recent loss coming against Arkansas-Monticello, 60-57. Prior to that, however, the Bulldogs had won three in a row, including an overtime victory at home against Arkansas Tech, 79-71.
 
In GAC games this season, Southwestern is 5-3 at home compared to just 1-6 on the road, making up its 6-9 league record. It's one conference win on the road came against HSU earlier this year as the Bulldogs triumphed inside the Duke Wells Center, 75-70. Leading scorer Ben Smith paced the SWOSU offense with 16 points on 6-of-13 shooting and 4-of-8 from long range.
 
The aforementioned Smith leads the charge from a scoring standpoint with 14.3 points per game, followed by Kamden Gipson (13.0 ppg) and Chris Braggs Jr. (12.3 ppg). Gipson, who had a game-high six assists against the Reddies in the season's first meeting, leads the team with 3.5 assists per game. As a team, Southwestern is fourth in the league with 75.3 points per game while Henderson is sixth in scoring defense at 70.2 points.