ARKADELPHIA -- Ouachita Baptist led for 39 minutes Thursday and Henderson State trailed by 19 points with 11 minutes to play in the Battle of the Ravine at the Duke Wells Center.
Henderson (15-8, 10-7 Great American Conference) erased the 19-point deficit to make it 58-58 at the 3:43 mark. Ouachita (10-11, 7-10) appeared to regain control with five straight points from Morris Talbert and a runner from Mahlon Martin for a 65-60 advantage with just 1:25 remaining.
Joshua Jones answered with a 3-pointer for the Reddies. A 3-pointer from Chris Parker gave the Reddies their first lead of the game, 66-65, with 22 seconds remaining in the game.
Martin's 3-point attempt failed on the other end and Mike Fofana grabbed the rebound for the Reddies and was fouled with 6.8 seconds to go. Fofana hit his first attempt at the line, but he missed his second.
Raekwon Rogers grabbed the rebound and was fouled with about five seconds remaining. Rogers was unable to attempt his free throws and Chris Owens made 1 of 2 to set the final score of 68-65.
Jones and Rel Johnson swatted Martin's 3-point heave at the buzzer to cap off Henderson's largest comeback of the year.
The win gave Henderson its first season sweep of Ouachita since the 2005-06 season.
The Tigers jumped out quickly on their rivals in the first half as Matthew Ward and Wesley Franklin hit back-to-back 3-pointers. A three from Kendarious Smith gave them an 11-4 lead with 14:53 left on the clock.
An 8-0 run later made the lead 13 points as Ward hit another 3-pointer. Ouachita ended the half on a 6-2 run as Eric Brown made two free throws in the final seconds.
Henderson trailed, 36-24, at the break and the first 10 minutes of the second half made matters worse. Four straight points from the Reddies were answered by six straight from the Tigers.
Martin capped another 7-0 run with a 3-pointer for an 18-point lead. Grant Jones gave Ouachita its largest lead of the game, 53-34, on a layup with 11 minutes left to play.
Henderson called a timeout and began to chip away at the lead. The Tigers did not score for the next five minutes, but they maintained a double-digit lead.
The Reddies ripped off a 10-0 run to cut the deficit to 53-43. Ouachita got back on the board with back-to-back buckets, but Henderson used a 3-pointer from Jones, five straight points from Parker and a contested layup in transition from Owens to erase the deficit and tie the game with 3:43 to go.
Franklin tied his season high with 14 points and also had seven rebounds. Smith added 10 points and Martin put in nine points with six rebounds.
Ouachita is scheduled for a home game today at 3 p.m. inside Bill Vining Arena against Southern Arkansas (18-5, 13-4). The Muleriders are currently second in the conference standings
Parker scored 10 points in the final five minutes to finish with a game-high 21 points. Jones chipped in 13 points, while both Johnson and Owens added 10 points.
Henderson will be on the road today for a night game at Harding (5-18, 3-14) in Searcy at 7:30 p.m. The Bisons are second to last place in the GAC.
Sports on 02/16/2019