Alva Review-Courier -

ARKADELPHIA, AR - Henderson State got a game-high 23 points from freshman Pink Jones and a career-high 20 from sophomore Torrie Thompson, including a game-winning jumper in the lane with nine seconds remaining, to defeat archrival Ouachita Baptist 75-74 on the road on Monday night.

The Lady Tigers jumped out to an early 21-14 lead after one quarter, but the Reddies responded in the second, and closed the halftime gap to just 38-35, despite shooting just under 39 percent from the field in the first two periods.

Henderson came out hot in the second half, and used a 15-5 run to seize a 50-43 lead with six minutes left in the third quarter. OBU would not go away, and used a 7-0 spurt of their own to tie things back up at 50-50. The tie carried over into the final quarter at 55-55, setting up a heart-stopping last ten minutes of play.

In the fourth, neither team could open a lead on the other, as the score changed hands numerous times over the first several minutes. With OBU leading 67-66, it looked like they may have put a dagger in the Reddies, when guard Bria Caldwell hit a 30-foot desperation 3-pointer as the shot clock hit zero to put the Lady Tigers up 70-66 with just under 2:30 left to play. Henderson, however, showed their grit, responding to trim the lead to just one at 74-73 and 24.9 seconds remaining.

With OBU in possession and inbounding the ball just ahead of half court, the Lady Tigers were called for over-and-back on the inbound, giving the ball back to the Reddies with 22 seconds left. After two passes, Thompson caught the ball on the left wing, gave a good pump-fake that sent the OBU defender flying, took a hard dribble into the lane and calmly knocked down a 12-footer that rolled in off the back of the rim to give Henderson a 75-74 lead with nine seconds on the clock. The Lady Tigers quickly tried to inbound the ball, but Pink Jones turned on the jets, chased down the ball-handler from behind, knocked the ball away, and a swarm of Reddies jumped on it with 0.3 seconds remaining to get a jump ball call in Henderson's favor. Haleigh Henson got a quick pass inbounds to Jones and it was over, as Henderson came away with a wild one-point victory.

Thompson's career-high 20 points comes just two days after a solid 15 point showing against UAM, while Pink Jones was her usual self for the Reddies, coming away with eight boards and two steals to go with her 23 points. Fellow freshman Hailey Estes had a good game for Henderson, crashing the glass all night to snag a game-high 13 rebounds, and Henson poured in 15 points of her own and hit several big shots for the Reddies in the game's final few minutes.

As a team, Henderson shot just 42.9 percent from the field, but held the Lady Tigers to 40 percent shooting on the defensive end of the court. The Reddies also forced 14 OBU turnovers and hit three more 3-pointers than the lady Tigers. The win is Henderson's fifth-straight over OBU and carries them to 7-2 in conference play on the season.

The Reddies' next game is on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. against Arkansas Tech on the road in Russellville, Arkansas.