ARKADELPHIA, Ark. – Henderson State fell late to Dallas Baptist Saturday afternoon inside the Duke Wells Center, 66-63. Both teams went into the locker room at a deadlock, 36-36, before DBU edged HSU in the second, 30-27.
 
It was a tale of two halves for the Reddie offense. After shooting a superb 56.0 percent (14-25) from the field and 50.0 percent (4-8) from three in the first half, Henderson mustered just eight of 24 field goals and three of 13 triples in the second 20-minute stint.  
 
Ryan Boyce scored a season-high 12 points on 5-of-7 shooting with leading-scorer Franck Kamgain matching him. Malik Riddle finished his afternoon with 11 points while Alvin Miles got the offense moving with a career-high eight assists to go with six points.
 
Henderson came out of the gate firing, connecting on five of its first six field goals, including a perfect 2-for-2 from deep, at the first media timeout. The hot shooting had HSU pacing the equally-lethal shooting Patriots, 12-10.
 
Where HSU was hitting at a high rate from within the perimeter, Dallas Baptist was seeing similar success from behind the arc. After a fast start from the Reddies had them ahead 7-1, four straight triples from DBU gave the visitors their first lead of the game at 13-12 with 14:36 left in the opening half.
 
From that point on, there were eight lead changes over the final 14 and a half minutes. A trey from DBU gave the opening half its last lead change with 4:29 until intermission, which yielded a Patriot 8-0 run. With Dallas Baptist sporting a 36-30 lead, it was HSU's turn to go on a run, working the game back to a tie with a 6-0 run to close the half.
 
A three-pointer from Kamgain 99 seconds into the second half gave HSU its first lead since the 4:46 mark of the game's opening stanza. Another triple from Kamgain mixed with buckets from Miles, Boyce and Riddle gave Henderson its biggest lead of the contest at 49-42 and then again at 55-47 with just under 10 minutes remaining.
 
As was custom with any sizable lead up to that point on either side, the advantage began to dwindle. While DBU continued to chop away, HSU went cold, allowing the Patriots to put together a 14-2 run and reclaim a four-point, 61-57 lead with five minutes left in regulation.
 
A final 6-0 run from Henderson gave them one last shot at the lead before Dallas Baptist closed the game with five unanswered points. With a three-point deficit facing head coach Jimmy Elgas' squad, a three-pointer from Miles rolled the wrong way for the home team to give the Division II bout to the Patriots.
 
Henderson St. (2-3) will now have four days off before opening conference play with the Southern Arkansas Muleriders Thursday, Dec. 1 at 7:30 p.m. from the Duke Wells Center.