VINCENNES, Ind. – The two best teams in Region 24 women's basketball hit the floor Thursday night for the final game of the 2021 regular season. The Vincennes University Lady Trailblazers came away with the upset victory over No. 12-ranked Wabash Valley 78-74.
The Lady Blazers took the lead early in the first quarter, jumping out to a narrow 10-7 advantage before Wabash Valley closed out the first 10 minutes of play on a 14-8 scoring run to lead by three at the first break.
The second quarter showed how close a matchup this game truly was, as the two teams battled back-and-forth for every basket.
Wabash Valley finished the half strong to hold a 35-32 lead heading into the locker room.
The game shifted for the Blazers in the third quarter on sophomore night, as sophomore Reeva Hammelman led Vincennes with eight points in the quarter as VU pushed ahead of Wabash Valley 56-53 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Trailblazer defense shined in the fourth, not allowing the Warriors to score for the first three minutes of action in the final quarter as Vincennes built their lead to 60-53.
Wabash Valley battled back like a top-15 team in the country, but late free throws helped seal the four-point win for Vincennes in the final game of the regular season.
"We've been working really hard in practice and I know everybody says that, but these girls have worked exceptionally hard," Hall of Fame head coach Harry Meeks said. "We've been short-handed. There have been days where we can't scrimmage because we don't have enough players, but this past week we've had enough and that's helped us a good bit."
"But we have some talent on this basketball team too. We point toward this game, Wabash Valley every year is tough, every year you have to prepare yourself and work really hard just to stay in the game with them. They always have great athletes, Luke (Scheidecker) does a great job with them and I feel very fortunate that we came out with the win here. This was good for our girls, myself and our coaches Clyde Buck and Bob Ryker, who do a great job with helping me and this was an overall team win for us."
Vincennes was led by a double-double performance from Reeva Hammelman, who would finish with 16 points and 10 rebounds on the night, while also adding three steals.
Sophomore Amani Brown recorded a game-high 22 points, while also grabbing five rebounds and five assists on the game.
Sophomore Alexis Radcliff was the third Trailblazer to reach double-figures, finishing with 15 points and eight rebounds.
Sophomore point guard Shaila Beeler came through for the Blazers at the free throw line, sinking all nine of her shots from the line on her way to nine points and three assists.
"We talked about the sophomores before the game when we were giving the defensive assignments. We gave Reeva the toughest assignment and she held her to 18. I was really pleased with Reeva and I told her she is a great effort player for us. She can shoot the ball, she's a tough-minded kid, she's great to have on your basketball team and a really super person. Great in the classroom and a great representative of Vincennes University."
"Trinitee Harris came in for us, I know she didn't score much, but she distributed the ball and changed the direction of the game when we needed to get going again. Candela came in and did a good job rebounding for us. She got in foul trouble in the first half and we saved her for the second and she was very productive, so I'm really happy to have her back and I think that's going to make us a better basketball team."
"We only had 15 turnovers for the game, we had eight of those at the half, so in the second half we didn't turn the ball over quite as often and that was a point of emphasis at halftime, take care of the ball. We want to be as close to zero turnovers as we can get."
The win Thursday night moves Hall of Fame head coach Harry Meeks to 707 wins, good for most wins by a basketball coach in Vincennes University history, passing fellow Hall of Fame coach Dan Sparks.
"I'm pleased to be in the Hall of Fame, I'm pleased to have been here long enough to win 707 games. Dan was a great coach here. He ran a class program. The other places he coached he won also. He's always going to be the king of the men's program until someone knocks him off. I'm really pleased for the women's program that I've won this many games, that means we've been successful, we've averaged around 25 wins a year and I think that's pretty successful over a 30-year period. That's something you can write home about. I'm proud of coming to Indiana and winning 700 games in this state, where basketball is THE sport and we love it here."
The Lady Blazers close out the regular season with a 16-3 record and a 14-2 record in Region 24 play.
Vincennes will begin the Region 24 tournament Tuesday, April 6 as the No. 2 seed. VU will host their first round matchup at the P.E. Complex, with tip-off Tuesday scheduled for 7 p.m. eastern.
