BETHANY, Okla. — Quawn Marshall made a go-ahead layup with 12 seconds remaining on Wednesday night and Henderson State rallied to stun No. 2 seed Southern Nazarene on its home court 60-57 and advance to the GAC Semifinals for the third-straight season.
Raekwon Rogers led the Reddies with 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the floor while Marshall had 15 and hit four 3-pointers in the win.
The victory was the fifth-straight for HSU in the conference tournament dating back to last season and was the first win for Henderson in Bethany, Oklahoma since 2015. The Reddies will now face No. 1 seed Arkansas-Monticello at 7:30 p.m. on Friday in Monticello, Arkansas.
The Reddies led by as many as eight in the first half on the road, but SNU used a 13-6 run over the final 5:16 of the period to trim Henderson's halftime advantage to 29-28. HSU held the Crimson Storm to 35.8% shooting in the first 20 minutes and were buoyed by Rogers' 14 first half points on 6-of-8 shooting.
The second period was tight throughout, but with SNU up 44-43 and 9:32 remaining, the Crimson Storm put together an 8-0 spurt over three minutes to seize the largest lead of the game by either side, 52-43, with 6:27 to go.
Facing its largest deficit of the night, Henderson got a 3-pointer from Malik Riddle and layup from Rogers in quick succession to cut the lead to 52-48 at the 4:16 mark. The long ball from Riddle snapped a five-minute scoreless drought for HSU.
After another bucket by Rogers brought the Reddies within two points, 52-50, and capped a 7-0 run, Henderson was dealt a critical blow when Rogers picked up his fifth foul with 3:20 left in regulation. Despite the loss of its First Team All-GAC selection, HSU kept trimming the lead and used two free throws and a long jumper from Riddle to bring it to 55-54 in SNU's favor with 1:49 to go.
A floater by Marshall with just over a minute to play completed the rally for Henderson and gave the Reddies their first lead since it was 38-37. The advantage was short-lived, however, as the Crimson Storm's Xavier Bryant sliced through the defense to regain the lead for SNU, 57-56, with 35 seconds remaining.
With Rogers on the bench and needing a basket to keep its season alive, the Reddies went to the senior Marshall, who got a contested left-hand layup to go with 12 seconds on the clock to put HSU back in front, 58-57.
Henderson came away with a critical stop on the other end moments later when Xavier Davenport tied up First Team All-GAC pick Adokiye Iyaye to give the ball back to the Reddies with two seconds left. Two free throws from Marshall in the final seconds gave HSU its margin of victory, as the Crimson Storm's last-second heave came up short and the Reddies escaped Oklahoma with their biggest win of the year.
The Reddies shot just 39.7% in the game but out-rebounded SNU 41-30 and limited the Crimson Storm to 5-of-24 shooting from beyond the arc. Marshall held Southern Nazarene's Iyaye, who entered the night averaging 17 points per game, to just 13 points on 17 shots. HSU closed the game on a 17-5 run after being down 52-43 with six minutes to go.
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