ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — Behind a terrific first half, stifling defense and a career-high 26 points from Pink Jones, Henderson State notched its biggest win of the season on Thursday night, blitzing Arkansas Tech 75-52 at the Duke Wells Center. The win moves the Reddies to 9-4 on the year, 5-2 in Great American Conference play and extends their winning streak to five games.

The Reddies were all over the Golden Suns from the opening tip. After Tech scored the game's first four points, Henderson proceeded to answer by pouring in the next 20 and holding ATU scoreless for the remainder of the quarter. The big run helped the Reddies quickly seize momentum and a 20-4 lead after one. The second quarter was more of the same, as Henderson extended its lead by hitting five 3-pointers in the period, the first two from Haleigh Henson, to push the advantage out to 36-16 at the halftime break.

The Golden Suns began to creep back in the third and used a 16-7 run to cut the Reddies' lead down to 43-32 with 3:07 to go in the quarter, but HSU stifled the Tech spurt by closing the quarter with a 7-4 run of its own and carried a 14 point advantage in the game's final 10 minutes.

Tech's run gave them some life, but in the opening minutes of the fourth, Henderson slammed the door on any chance of a comeback, ripping off an 18-5 run and stretching the lead out to as many as 27 points before ultimately cruising to the 75-52 victory.

Jones led the Reddies with her new career-high of 26, 15 of which came in the second half, and also added eight rebounds and six assists, while Henson chipped in 18 points with four 3-pointers, four assists and three steals. Hailey Estes notched her third double-double in three games by scoring 11 and grabbing 10 rebounds.

As a team, Henderson played tremendous defense all night and held the No. 5 scoring offense in all of NCAA DII to 28 percent shooting from the field for the game and just 21.2 percent in the dominant first half. The Golden Suns were averaging a GAC-best 85 points per game entering Thursday night's contest. The Reddies also held their own on the glass against the GAC's top rebounding team, pulling down 46 boards to keep pace with the 46 of the Golden Suns.

The win over Tech is just the third victory for Henderson against ATU in the last decade and its first since January of 2014. The Reddies 5-2 mark in conference play this season leaves them tied with the Golden Suns for second place in the GAC.

Henderson plays again on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Monticello, Arkansas against UAM.