ARKADELPHIA, Ark. — Henderson State put together a terrific defensive effort to overcome cold shooting on Thursday evening, as the Reddies outlasted Arkansas-Monticello 54-50 in the GAC opener for both teams at the Duke Wells Center. 

Alvin Miles led HSU with 13 points off the bench and Ryan Boyce was the only other Reddie in double figures with 10 points to go along with eight rebounds.

It was a tough shooting night throughout for Henderson (4-2, 1-0), but particularly early. The Reddies opened the game by hitting just three of their first 17 shots and fell behind 16-7 after 12 minutes of play. 

HSU finally got some shots to fall down the stretch of the first half and out-scored UAM 13-5 in the last eight minutes to trail just 21-20 at the break. Henderson shot 23.3% in the opening period but forced 17 Weevil turnovers which kept the game close.

The opening portion of the second half saw the lead change hands four times. HSU grabbed its first advantage of the night, 22-21, and then retook it again several minutes later, 37-36, but each time UAM had an answer to flip the upper hand.

With Monticello up 39-36 at the 11:52 mark, the Henderson finally put together a run to take the lead for good. A jumper from Miles cut the deficit to just one, and a burst from Malik Riddle took care of the rest, as the scoring guard drained a 3-pointer and got a driving layup to go in quick succession to swing momentum and give the Reddies their largest lead, 43-39.

Seeing shots fall immediately benefited the HSU defense, which began to lock down the Weevils on the other end of the floor. After getting a layup to go at the 12:41 mark of the half, UAM did not make another field goal for over nine minutes of game time and scored just six points during that span.

With its defense dominating, the Reddies took advantage offensively and used two buckets from Miles, a layup from Franck Kamgain and a free throw from Tomislav Miholjcic to seize a 50-43 lead with 3:43 remaining in the game.

After not making a shot from the floor for nearly half of the second period, UAM put together a rally in the final moments by scoring on three-straight possessions to trim its deficit down to 50-49 with 1:39 to go. Miles gave HSU some breathing room by knocking down two free throws with just over a minute remaining, but a 1-for-2 trip to the line by the Weevils, and a miss by the Reddies on the other end, gave Monticello the ball in a 52-50 contest with a chance to tie in the final seconds.

Needing two to tie or three to take the lead, UAM got neither, as it committed its 27th and most-critical turnover of the night on a bad pass that was stolen by Yuri Swinford with 14 seconds remaining. Riddle, who dove for the loose ball, was fouled on the play and calmly hit both ends of the 1-and-1 to give Henderson a two-possession advantage, 54-50. That proved to be enough, as the Weevils got only a desperation heave at the buzzer against the Reddie defense and HSU walked away with a 1-0 record in conference play.

Henderson committed just 15 turnovers in the win, 12 less than UAM, and saw its bench outscore the Weevils 32-20. Monticello shot 49% from the floor in the game compared to just 34% for HSU, but took 21 less shots than the Reddies due to turnovers. The win was the first for the Reddies over UAM in the regular season since 2016. 

HSU hits the road on Saturday when it travels to Magnolia, Arkansas to face Southern Arkansas at 3 p.m.