SEARCY – The Harding Bisons open the second half of the Gulf South Conference West Division season Thursday against Henderson State at the Duke Wells Center in Arkadelphia. Tipoff is at 8 p.m. Harding is currently 2-5 and in sixth place (2.0 games out of fourth) in the GSC West. HSU is eighth at 0-7. The top four teams advance to the conference tournament.
COACHES: Harding is coached by Jeff Morgan, who enters his 18th season as the Head coach of the Bisons. Morgan has compiled a 299-201 record at HU. Harding head coach Jeff Morgan is seeking his 300th career victory as a head coach in Thursday's game. He has 282 of those victories in his 17 seasons at Harding.
Henderson State is coached by Josh Matthews, who is in his fourth year as the head coach of the Lady Reddies. Matthews has compiled a 44-38 record at Henderson State.
THE BISONS: Harding junior Stephen Blake is leading the GSC in free throw percentage at 85.7 percent. Blake ranks 42nd nationally in Division II. Trent Morgan is third in the conference in steals, and Kevin Brown is sixth in blocks.
Junior Kevin Brown is moving closer to becoming only the 31st Harding player to score 1,000 points in a career. Brown enters the Henderson State game with 950 career points.
Kevin Brown is averaging 14.4 points and 6.0 rebounds in five career games vs. Henderson State. He is also shooting 60 percent and has 12 steals.
Harding held Ouachita Baptist to only 33.3 percent shooting on Saturday. It was the seventh time this season the Bisons have held an opponent under 40 percent shooting. Harding is 6-1 in those games with the only loss coming to UAM in overtime.
Harding has had four different players score 20 points or more in a Gulf South Conference game this season -- Kirk Porter (26), Stephen Blake (22), Kevin Brown (21) and Sam Brown (21).
THE REDDIES: Henderson State is a member of the Gulf South Conference West Division and is located in Arkadelphia, Ark. (pop. 10,548). The Reddies were picked to finish seventh in the GSC West in the GSC Preseason Coaches Poll.
Henderson State leads the GSC and ranks sixth in NCAA Division II in three-point field goal percentage (43.1 percent). Florida Southern leads Division II at 46.4 percent.
Lance Smith, a 6-8 forward from Memphis, Tenn., leads Henderson State in scoring at 18.0 points per game. He also leads the GSC and ranks second nationally with 13.0 rebounds per game. He also leads the GSC with 1.85 blocks per game and sixth with a 51.1 field goal percentage.
Henderson State is among the nation's weakest teams in turnover margin. The Reddies have a -3.5 turnover margin to rank 246th of 270 NCAA Division II teams.
SERIES: Harding and Henderson State are meeting for the 105th time with the Reddies leading the series 71-33. Harding has won four of the last six meetings in Arkadelphia. The Bisons won the earlier meeting this season 94-54 in Searcy, Harding's largest margin of victory in series history.
