ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — Henderson State used a career-high 23 points from Mike Fofana and shot 53.7 percent from the field as a team to fight past Northwestern Oklahoma State 85-73 on Thursday night in the Duke Wells Center.

Fofana led the Reddies 23 points and nine rebounds, while Chris Parker added 14 points and four assists. Rel Johnson finished with 12 and Joshua Jones had 11 on 3-of-4 shooting from 3-point range.

Henderson (9-5, 4-4) trailed 42-41 at the half, but with the score tied 53-53 at the 13:57 mark of the second, the Reddies got six-straight points from Fofana to jumpstart a 16-4 run over the next seven minutes and seize the largest lead of the game by either side, 69-57 with 7:02 to go. NWOSU (3-10, 1-6) made just one field goal during that seven-minute stretch.

The Reddies extended the lead out to as many as 16 points with four minutes remaining and although the Rangers had one last push to close the gap to 78-69 with 2:05 left, they never threatened again, as HSU was able to melt the clock away and pick up its fourth Great American Conference win of the year.

HSU out-scored NWOSU by 13 in the second half due in large part to its defense, which held Northwestern Oklahoma to just 32.1 percent shooting from the floor in the final 20 minutes of play.

Henderson out-rebounded the Rangers 38-26 on the night and hit 10 3-pointers in the win. NWOSU hurt itself at the free throw line and hit on just 16-of-32 attempts in the game.

The Reddies will play at home again on Saturday when Southwestern Oklahoma State comes to the Duke Wells Center at 3 p.m.