Tweet #theGAC  BARTLESVILLE, Okla. – Harding defeated Henderson State, 63-54, in Friday’s opening Great American Conference Women’s Basketball Championship quarterfinal contest from Bruin Fieldhouse thanks to a 36-16 run that spanned the final five minutes of the second quarter and the duration of the third quarter.
 
Down 23-14, Harding (21-8) scored 14 of the final 19 points of the second quarter to draw even entering halftime. Carissa Caples scored 12 of her game-high 22 points during that stretch. In the third quarter, the Lady Bisons seized control of the contest by outscoring the Reddies (18-11) by a 22-11 margin.
 
Harding never surrendered the lead the rest of the way. Henderson State pulled to within three points at 52-49 but Cheyenne Brown and Caples combined to score the next eight points of the contest to secure the victory. Brown finished with 14 points on 6-of-11 shooting and added six rebounds.
 
The Lady Bisons scored 19 points off of 13 forced turnovers while Henderson State only mustered seven points off of the 14 turnovers Harding committed. Karrington Whaley led the Reddies with 16 points and eight rebounds. She went 8-for-9 from the floor. Blu Jones went 4-for-8 from the 3-point arc en route to tallying 12 points. All-GAC First Team guard Pink Jones finished with eight points, five assists and four steals.
 
Kellie Lampo, a fellow member of the All-GAC First Team, scored 12 points, pulled down eight rebounds and blocked three shots. As a team, Harding outrebounded Henderson State by a 40-33 margin.
 
With the win, the Lady Bisons advance to the GAC semifinals for the seventh time in eight years. The will face top-seeded Southwestern Oklahoma State in Saturday’s opening semifinal, set to tip at noon. While the Lady Bulldogs won both regular-season meetings, the Lady Bisons eliminated a top-ranked SWOSU squad in the semifinals of the 2018 GAC Championships.