MBB-D2: Ouachita Baptist Tigers (10-11) at Henderson State Reddies (10-13)

After a huge 2-0 road trip against Southwestern and Northwestern Oklahoma State, Henderson returns to Arkadelphia for a four-game home stand beginning Tuesday, Feb. 14 as HSU looks for revenge against its arch-rival Ouachita Baptist. Tip-off from inside the Duke Wells Center is set for 7:30 p.m.
 
REDDIES REPORT
With HSU tied for ninth in the conference standings heading into this past Thursday, the Reddies needed two road wins in the worst way, and two road wins is what they got. After defeating the Bulldogs and the Rangers by a combined eight points, including besting NWOSU in overtime, Henderson is now tied for eighth in the league ranks and one game out of sixth.
 
A large contributor to the consecutive wins was Alvin Miles, who was named the GAC’s Player of the Week for his efforts. The Reddie starting point guard finished the week with 46 points on 16-of-27 shooting (59.3%) and a perfect 11-for-11 at the free-throw line. The consecutive wins also brought 10 rebounds, nine steals and seven assists in the busy week for the Whitehaven High School product. Against SWOSU, Miles became the first HSU player in the GAC era to record at least 20 points, five assists and five steals.
 
After posting four straight games of 16 or more points, Miles has established himself as the team’s second leading scorer with 11.6 points per game, behind only Kamgain’s GAC-12th best 13.8 points per contest. Henderson’s offense as a whole put on show in Alva, Oklahoma Saturday, with 91 points the most points HSU has scored in a conference game since defeating Ouachita Baptist back on Jan. 25, 2021, 96-67.
 
With 216 meetings in the all-time basketball series between the Reddies and the Tigers, the head-to-head is split evenly, 108-108. Ouachita was able to even up the all-time record earlier this season on their home court, defeating HSU, 74-69. After falling behind by 16 in the first half, Henderson fought all the way back, eventually taking a brief lead late in the action, before OUA ultimately came out on top. Henderson has not lost to the purple-and-yellow at home since Feb. 20, 2018.
 
Prior to the Battle of the Ravine, there are some key games happening on Monday, Feb. 13 around the league that will have an effect on Henderson’s GAC Tournament chances. The current-six seed East Central Tigers travel to Southeastern Oklahoma St. and current-eight seed Southwestern Oklahoma St. makes the short drive over to the league’s current nine seed in Northwestern Oklahoma St. ECU (8-9), SWOSU (7-10) and NWOSU (6-11) are all either tied or within one game of the Reddies (7-10).
 
SCOUTING OUACHITA BAPTIST
Since beating Henderson back on Jan. 23, Ouachita Baptist has lost four of its last six games, including a current three-game skid. While HSU went 2-0 on this most recent Oklahoma road trip, the Tigers dropped both contests against the same teams, falling to Northwestern Oklahoma St., 75-70, before getting edged out by Southwestern, 69-68.
 
Of Ouachita’s 10-11 overall record, seven of those wins have come at home while just three of them have come on the road. When looking at conference games, OUA is 3-6 on the road, including having lost six of their last seven league games away from Bill Vining Arena.
 
The backcourt of the Tigers consists of LaQuan Butler Jr. (14.5 ppg) and Ma’Darius Hobson (14.4 ppg), who are each among the GAC’s Top-10 scorers. In the season’s first meeting against the Reddies, Butler scored a team-high 18 points while converting on 5-of-7 three-pointers. Hobson added 15 to go with seven rebounds and four steals.