BETHANY, Okla. — Henderson State's magical 2023-24 women's basketball season came to an end on Friday night as the Reddies fell 70-61 to No. 1 seed Southern Nazarene in the opening round of the NCAA Division II Tournament.

The Reddies finished the year 20-12 overall and as Great American Conference Tournament Champions for the first time in program history. Their NCAA Tournament appearance on Friday evening was the first for the school since 2006.

Senior JJ Eddens led Henderson in defeat and turned in a career high 22 points and six rebounds in her final college game. Ashley Farrar, the program's all-time leading scorer, ended her illustrious five-year career with the Reddies by scoring nine points.

HSU was within striking distance of the Central Region's top seeded team for most of the night. The Reddies trailed 15-11 after one quarter and were down 33-25 at the break. Two free throws from Olivia Allen brought Henderson within 44-37 at the 2:21 mark of the third, but SNU closed the quarter on a 10-4 run to open up a 54-41 advantage through three.

The Reddies refused to go away and trimmed the Crimson Storm lead down to just 58-50 with less than eight minutes remaining in the game, but Southern Nazarene proved to be too much on its home floor. SNU responded with a 10-0 run that opened up its largest lead of the night and effectively put the game out of reach for HSU.

Henderson's bench out-scored the Storm 34-13 in the contest and the Reddies were +7 in turnover margin, but cold shooting plagued them for most of the night as they shot just 37% from the floor and were 2-of-12 from 3-point range.