It was an exciting game for the few fans that were present at the Lady Reddies vs. Arkansas Tech’s Golden Suns. Yeah it was really sad when there were more Tech fans in the stands than Henderson fans. I mean they had to drive 136 miles through snow to get to Arkadelphia, and Henderson students can’t travel the 200 yards to the Duke Wells Center to attend the game. I know the snow was coming down hard and that Arkadelphia is filled with so many other exciting things to do, but that’s ridiculous.
I mean the Lady Reddies has actually won more than one conference game this season, and have had winning seasons in the past. That is why I hate going to the games, and looking around at the empty stands during the girls games. The best thing is when there is about 10 minutes is left in the girls games then more people start showing up to the game, not to see the girls play, but they’re just early to the guy’s game. I know that people think that girls sports aren’t as exciting as guys sports, but since most of the students who show up for the game don’t cheer anyways, why not show up a little earlier and watch a team that is winning. It’s just a thought.
Now let’s talk about the game. The game was tied at half time 46-46. Both teams were shooting great from the field. The Lady Reddie’s were shooting 45.7% while the Golden Suns went into halftime after shooting 50% for the field. It would go back and forth in the second half with both teams blowing their leads. At the end of regulation the score was 80-80 (a ridiculous score for even a lot of men’s teams). But most HSU students would know because they don’t ever show up to boys or girls games.
So the Lady Reddies were now heading into overtime with the fifth ranked Golden Suns having the momentum, but the Lady Reddies would strike first with a free-throw. Unfortunately this would be one of only two free-throws made by the Lady Reddies in overtime. The Golden Suns would go on to win 90-86.
What was the problem for the Lady Reddies?
They couldn’t hit but 2 out of 5 free-throws in overtime. Like I have mentioned before in a previous post, FREE-THROWS ARE CRUIAL especially in overtime, the Lady Reddies have no one to blame for their lose except for themselves because they had chance after chance to put away the Golden Suns if they could hit their free-throws. It was a tough lost for the Lady Reddies for more on this game check out this article. The Lady Reddies then went on the road to face Southern Arkansas were they would have another close game that would turn out badly for them.
As for the men’s team I was actually really impressed at how close the Reddies would play the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys. The final score was the Wonder Boys 79, Reddies 69. The Wonder Boys are ranked first in the nation, and with the Reddies coming into the game without a conference victory, I have to be honest I didn’t think we had much hope.
The Reddies would start the game off in foul trouble after only 5 minutes of play the Reddies had racked up 7 fouls. They would go on to stay close to the Wonder Boy throughout the rest of the first half, going into halftime only being down by two, 33-31.
The Reddies would start off the second half much like the first, staying close but never leading. The Wonder Boys would eventually jump up to a 10 point lead, but the Reddies battled back to tie the game at 49-49 with 11:53 left in the game.
It would be shortly after this that I would witness one of the worst moves I’ve seen a coach make in a long time. Lucas Whisenhunt would get his fourth foul with 11 minutes left in the game. Now in this situation most coaches would sub a player in for Whisenhunt so he doesn’t foul out early in the game, but not our coach he leaves Whisenhunt in and what happens? On the very next play Whisenhunt commits his fifth foul and now gets to sit the rest of the game. It was a dumb foul, but it was a dumber move for him to still be out there with that much time left.
The Reddies would try to stay in the game after this, but the Wonder Boys were just too strong for the Reddies. They would go to pull away from the Reddies and eventually defeating them 79-69. For more details see this article.
I would like to say congratulation to the Reddies for getting the first conference win over Southern Arkansas with a score of 67-65. I hope they can build off this win and finish the season strong.
I agree with Jeremy.