MAGNOLIA -- Henderson State got 27 points, six rebounds and five assists from Pink Jones and finished the game on a 16-3 run to get past Southern Arkansas, 83-70, on Thursday night and notch its 20th win of the season.
The Reddies (20-7, 16-5 Great American Conference) led for the entire game, but, after building up a 17-point advantage in the first half, saw their lead trimmed down to just 62-60 entering the fourth quarter. Southern Arkansas (9-18, 8-13) took its first lead of the game, 64-63, at the 7:50 mark and continued to lead it 68-67 with 6:30 to play.
Jones, a sophomore guard from Fayetteville, took over. She scored the next eight points for the Reddies to push them in front, 75-68, and force a timeout by the Lady Muleriders. The timeout did little to slow Henderson's momentum as, again, it was Jones to come through for the Reddies with an assist to Karrington Whaley, a freshman from Springdale Har-Ber. to give Henderson a 79-70 lead with about three minutes to play.
Senior guard Haleigh Henson, of Greenwood, put the nail in the coffin on the next trip down the court with a deep 3-pointer to stretch Henderson's advantage to 82-70 with 2:30 remaining. Henderson's defense helped close out win No. 20 on the year.
Jones finished 10 of 15 from the floor and scored 10 points during Henderson's fourth-quarter run. She became one of just four players in the GAC to score more than 400 points this season, averaging 16.2 points per game.
Henson added 18 points and six rebounds and hit four 3-pointers. She moved into fourth place all-time in scoring for Henderson with 18 points and now has ,1263 points in her career. Henson needs just six more 3-pointers this year to set the school record for threes in a single season. She has hit 77 so far this year, playing in 30 or more minutes in all but two games this season.
Sophomore Blu Jones had 12 points and five boards. Whaley continued her strong play and chipped in 10 points with six rebounds.
Hailey Estes, a sophomore from Conway, finished with seven points and nine boards, going all 40 minutes for the fifth time this season. Freshman Lani Snowden, of Van Buren, is now 11 of 20, 55 percent, from 3-point range in her last five games and is also shooting 89.3 percent, 25 of 28, at the free throw line this year.
The Reddies threatened to pull away at the start of the second quarter and used a 20-8 run to open up a 41-24 advantage with 3:40 left in the half. Southern Arkansas found a response in the form of senior guard Sue Key, who scored nine-straight points to help jump-start a 15-7 run for the Lady Muleriders over the remainder of the quarter. The run trimmed the lead down to just 48-39 at the break despite the Reddies shooting nearly 60 percent from the field in the first half and hitting seven 3-pointers.
Henderson outrebounded Southern Arkansas, 44-33, and held the Lady Muleriders to just 2 of 14 shooting from beyond the 3-point line. The Reddies shot 50.9 percent for the game and 53.3 percent in the pivotal fourth quarter, when they outscored the hosts 21-10.
The 20th win makes 2017-18 just the sixth season in program history in which the Reddies have eclipsed the 20-win mark and the first since 2005-06 when Henderson went 29-5 and won the South Regional at the NCAA Tournament.
The Reddies' final regular season game of the year comes is today at 5:30 p.m. against Harding (15-14, 11-10) in Searcy.
Henderson has secured the No. 3 seed for the GAC Tournament next week in Bartlesville, Okla. The top two seeds are Southwestern Oklahoma State (25-2, 20-1) and Arkansas Tech (22-3, 18-3).
The Lady Bisons sat a half game ahead of Southeastern Oklahoma State (12-13, 10-10) before the Save Storm played at Southern Nazarene (8-16, 6-14) Friday. Southeastern will close out the regular season at home today against Northwestern Oklahoma State (11-15, 7-13).
Tim Kirby is in his 13th season as the head coach of the Lady Bisons. Harding has won nine of its last 11 games and is 11-3 at home this year.
Harding is led by freshman Kellie Lampo, of Jessieville, and senir Sydney Layrock. Both average about 12 points and six rebounds per game.
The Lady Bisons have the No. 2 scoring defense in the GAC behind Henderson and are the No. 2 rebounding team in the league. Harding does struggle with turnovers and is last in the GAC with a turnover margin of -3.43.
Pink Jones poured in a then career-high 29 points and Estes notched her fourth double-double in five games when Henderson defeated Harding, 79-64, on Jan. 18 to stretch its then program-record GAC winning streak to seven games.
Sports on 02/24/2018