COVERAGE LINKS | GAME NOTES

ARKADELPHIA, Ark. - Henderson State will begin its final Oklahoma road trip of the 2023-24 regular season to Ada, Oklahoma, with the hopes of a postseason Oklahoma road trip to Shawnee for the 2024 GAC Tournament in the near future.

The Reddies will first have to get past the East Central Tigers Thursday, Feb. 22 in the second meeting this season. Tip-off from inside the Kerr Activities Center is set for 7:30 p.m.  

REDDIES REPORT (7-16, 6-12 GAC)
The last time out on the hardwood, Henderson State's five-game winning streak against Arkansas-Monticello was snapped with a 74-67 loss inside Steelman Fieldhouse. The Reddies never led in the contest, tying it up just twice. With shooting percentages largely equal, UAM's big advantage came inside the paint, where Monticello outscored HSU, 30-16.

Henderson St. continues to boast one of the top scoring offenses in the conference at 78.2 points per game, which is second in the league. Defensively, the Reddies are only holding opponents to 77.3 points, which is tenth. East Central offers a stingy defense but not as potent of an offense, owning the third-ranked scoring defense in the GAC (69.9 ppg) compared to the tenth-ranked scoring offense (68.0 ppg).

Both Malek Davis and Zyon Patterson are leading the team in scoring at 14.3 points per game. Tomislav Miholjcic is seeing 11.5 points and a team-high 7.9 rebounds per game. For his career, Miholjcic now has 550 boards in his HSU career, which is 15th all-time in program history. The Belgrade, Serbia, native needs just four more to move into 14th and 13 to get to 13th.

In the season's first meeting with East Central, HSU held a nine-point lead with 2:40 remaining in regulation, but the Tigers scored the game's final 10 points to seize the one-point victory, 78-77. After the red-and-gray held ECU to 2-of-17 shooting (11.8%) from behind the arc in the first half, East Central exploded by knocking down 9-of-14 (64.3%) three-point field-goals in the second frame to help come away with the victory.

At 6-12 in the conference, Henderson is currently one game out of eighth place. With four other teams 7-11 or worse, a win on Thursday will give HSU the tiebreaker over two of those teams. Oklahoma Baptist, which the Reddies hold the tiebreaker over, and Southern Arkansas, one of the three 7-11 teams, will face off Thursday in Shawnee, Oklahoma.   

SCOUTING EAST CENTRAL (11-13, 7-11 GAC)
Since escaping the Duke Wells Center with a win a month ago, East Central has won just two games, both of which were on the road. The Tigers have not won a home game in 2024 with its last win inside the Kerr Activities Center coming against Southwestern Oklahoma State on Dec. 9, 2023. Against GAC opponents this season, ECU is 2-6 on its home floor.

While ECU has not seen the outcomes it would desire at home, HSU has been left wanting more when the red-and-gray have played on the road as the Reddies have won just one GAC road game this season. When playing away from the Duke Wells Center against conference opposition, HSU is averaging just 72.9 points per game; five points fewer than its season scoring average. East Central is scoring an average of 63.8 points per game at home; four points fewer than its season average.

East Central has two players averaging over 10 points per game in senior guard Keyon Thomas (13.4 ppg) and junior forward Godsgift Ezedinma (12.2 ppg). While Thomas and Ezedinma are the Tigers' two biggest scoring threats, Bryce Woolridge (47.1%) and Robel Desta (48.4%) are their two biggest threats from long range as they are both leading the league in three-point field-goal percentage. Against HSU the first time around, Woolridge made 4-of-7 triples.