Reddie women control interior to beat Harding

The Sentinel-Record/James Leigh FROM THE CORNER: Henderson State senior guard Haleigh Henson puts up a shot for three against Harding as the Reddies routed the Bisons, 79-64, Thursday night at Duke Wells Center in Arkadelphia. Henson was 2-for-7 from distance and had 12 points on the night.
The Sentinel-Record/James Leigh FROM THE CORNER: Henderson State senior guard Haleigh Henson puts up a shot for three against Harding as the Reddies routed the Bisons, 79-64, Thursday night at Duke Wells Center in Arkadelphia. Henson was 2-for-7 from distance and had 12 points on the night.

ARKADEPHIA -- Pink Jones scored a career-high 29 points and Hailey Estes picked up her fourth double-double in five games to lead Henderson State to a 79-64 win over visiting Harding Thursday night at Duke Wells Arena.

The Reddies (11-4, 7-2 in Great American Conference) stretch their program-high win streak to seven straight as they prepare for Southern Arkansas at home Saturday.

"The scary thing is, I don't think this was our best defensive performance," said Reddies head coach Jill Thomas. "I thought we missed a lot of scout assignments, especially early, and just did some not-very-smart stuff late. It's good to see offensively that when we're not at our best we can still put up 80 points. We didn't shoot the three very well at all tonight. I think that's what makes us really well-balanced right now. We have the ability to score in a couple different ways, and a lot of different people are providing a lot of things for us right now."

Harding (6-12, 2-8) had a good thing going early, taking a five-point lead over the Reddies at the 6:31 mark in the opening quarter with a 3-point shot by 5-10 senior guard Falan Miller, but Estes eliminated the lead with a layup and 3-point bucket of her own to tie the game at 9-9 with 5:51 remaining.

The Bisons never regained the lead, despite pulling to a draw twice more in the quarter before 5-9 sophomore guard Blu Jones pushed Henderson's lead back out to five with 18 seconds remaining. Harding 5-10 sophomore guard Peyton Padgett sank a pair of free throws with four seconds left to leave the Reddies ahead 20-17 at the end of the first.

"That's what they do," said Harding head coach Tim Kirby. "We were in the game in the first half because they went 1 of 11 from three. They've got a really, really good 3-point shooting team. They shoot it deep, and we've got some defensive deficiencies that allow that to happen."

Harding continued to battle in the second period, fighting to within a two-point deficit with 7:07 remaining in the opening half, but it was the last time the Bisons got within striking distance the remainder of the night. The Reddies used a 6-0 run to stretch their lead to 30-22 with 4:25 to go, but a pair of back-to-back buckets by Harding pulled the visiting team back to a four-point deficit with 3:33 to go.

Henderson closed out the period with a 6-3 run to carry a 36-29 buffer into the locker room. The Reddies shot for better than 50 percent in the first half, hitting 16 of 31 for 51.6 percent.

The Reddies wasted no time, coming out hot in the second half. They opened with an 8-2 run to stretch their lead to 10 with 7:07 to go.

After three points by the Bisons, Henderson rallied with an 18-6 run to stretch its lead to 19 with 45 seconds remaining. Harding closed with a made free throw and layup for a 61-45 stretch going into the final frame. The Reddies were finally able to open their perimeter game in the third, hitting 4 of 10 in the quarter after going 1-for-11 in the first half.

"The problem that happens there, we missed some point-blank shots to start the second half, and they went down and hit threes," Kirby said. "It's just one of those things. Those are deflating sometimes and we've got to be tougher than that. When you have momentum changes and things like that that happen because of maybe a bad play or something just didn't go right, you can compound the issues with not being focused at the other end."

Estes and Blu Jones kicked off the final period with a 3-pointer and layup, respectively, to give the Reddies their largest lead of the game, 66-45 with 8:40 to go. Harding later pulled within 72-59 with 3:48 remaining and put the spread under 15 four more times, but the Reddies never relented as they closed out the frame on 48.3 percent shooting.

"One of our big keys tonight was transition offense," Thomas said. "I didn't think we did that at all in the first or second quarter. At halftime, we really talked about that and emphasized needing to get out and run a little bit more. We did, and as you saw, it did give us that light.

"We need to get in our flow offensively and transition helps us. With the way they were guarding Pink Jones, we couldn't get in a flow, but she was able to go score. Once we got that transition flow going and our shooters alive a little bit, it woke us up."

Despite entering the game leading the GAC in rebounds with 727 and rebound margin at plus-10.4, Harding was out-rebounded by the Reddies, 42-35.

"That's crazy, but they are shooting long shots," said Kirby. "Long rebounds happen after long threes. I i's a matter of who's the first to the ball. They beat us majorly in the paint scoring, but that was a guard getting their paint scores.

(Pink) Jones just did whatever she wanted to do. That has been a theme for our team. We give up a lot of dribble-drive, easy baskets, and we've got to get that figured out."

The Reddies outscored Harding in the paint, 40-28.

"Harding was number two in the league in rebounding," Thomas said. "The other thing that really stands out is points in the paint versus theirs, and we had 40 to their 28. That's a big post-heavy team.

"That is one of the focuses and one of the things you worry about when you play Harding is having to stop their inside game. Not only did we out-rebound them, but we outscored them in the paint. I'm really proud of this team and the way they're coming together and playing."

Pink Jones led all scorers with 29 points on the night, entering the game with an average of 15.5 points per game and a career-high of 25 set earlier this month at Southeastern Oklahoma State. She finished 12-for-18 from the field with two rebounds, a block and three assists against three turnovers.

Estes put up 16 for the Reddies with 10 rebounds, her first double-double since scoring three straight at East Central, Southeastern and against Arkansas Tech last Saturday. She and Pink Jones both were 5 of 6 from the charity stripe to lead the Reddies. Estes was 3-for-7 from distance.

Senior guard Haleigh Henson added 12 points for the Reddies. Junior guard Torrie Thompson had 11 with seven rebounds and four assists against two turnovers.

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The Sentinel-Record/James Leigh HEAVY PRESSURE: Harding freshman forward Kellie Lampo (10) is fouled as she goes up for two in Thursday's 79-64 loss to Henderson State at Duke Wells Center in Arkadelphia. Lampo led the Bisons with 17 points and eight rebounds in the loss.

Harding was led by 6-0 freshman forward Kellie Lampo with 17 points in 24 minutes of game play. The Jessieville graduate finished shooting 8 of 15 from the field with a team-leading eight rebounds and no turnovers.

Senior forward Sydney Layrock was the only other Bison in double figures, putting up 10 points with six rebounds and three steals.

The Lady Bisons are back on the road today as they travel to Monticello to take on the Cotton Blossoms (5-9, 1-8). Tip-off at Steelman Field House is set for 2 p.m.

Henderson looks to continue its winning streak as they look to host the Muleriders (3-12, 2-7) at 1 p.m.

Sports on 01/20/2018

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