ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — Henderson State trailed by 19 points with 11 minutes to play on Thursday night but closed the game on a 34-12 run to rally and stun rival Ouachita Baptist 68-65 in front of a raucous crowd at the Duke Wells Center.
The Reddies (15-8, 10-7) trailed 36-24 at the break and the first 10 minutes of the second half made matters worse for HSU, as the Tigers stretched their lead out to 53-34 with 11 minutes remaining.
After a timeout, Henderson began to chip away and quickly ripped off a 10-0 run in a three-minute window to cut the deficit to 53-43. OBU tried to stem the tide with two buckets, but the rally was on, as the Reddies used a 3-pointer from Joshua Jones, five-straight points from Chris Parker, and a contested layup in transition from Chris Owens to erase the 19-point deficit and tie the game at 58-58 with 3:43 to go.
Ouachita (10-11, 7-10) appeared to regain control after losing its lead, as five-straight points from Morris Talbert and a tough runner from Mahlon Martin gave the Tigers a 65-60 advantage with just 1:25 remaining in regulation. Henderson, however, refused to go away and got a 3-pointer from Jones with just over a minute left to trim the lead to 65-63.
With seconds ticking away, an empty possession for OBU gave the Reddies a chance to take their first lead of the game and Parker capitalized, as he crossed Martin to create space and drained a 3-pointer from the top of the key to put Henderson in front 66-65 with 22 seconds left.
Martin came down and tried to answer on the other end for Ouachita but drew iron from the 3-point line. Mike Fofana grabbed the rebound for the Reddies with 6.8 seconds to go and was sent to the line, where he hit the first but missed the second shot off the front of the rim. The rebound belonged to HSU, though, as Raekwon Rogers snagged the biggest offensive rebound of the game and was fouled to buy the Reddies another possession with just over five seconds on the clock.
With an injured Rogers unable to shoot his free throws, it was Owens who was forced to step to the line in the pressure situation, where he went 1-for-2 to put the Reddies up 68-65. Down to their last gasp, the Tigers could not get a shot off at the buzzer, as Jones and Rel Johnson swatted away Martin's 3-point heave to set off a wild celebration and cap off Henderson's biggest comeback of the year.
Parker, who drilled the go-ahead 3-pointer and scored 10 points in final five minutes, finished with a game-high 21 to lead the Reddies. Jones chipped in 13 and hit two huge 3-pointers down the stretch, while both Johnson and Owens added 10 points. The win gives Henderson its first season sweep of Ouachita Baptist since the 2005-06 season.
The Reddies go on the road Saturday to face Harding in Searcy, Arkansas, at 7:30 p.m.
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