VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University men's basketball team climbed up one spot this week in the final NJCAA Division I National Rankings for the 2023-24 season to No. 4 in the country.
The Blazers closed down the 2023-24 regular season Tuesday night in the Physical Education Complex on Sophomore night and came away with an 84-65 victory over the Kaskaskia College Blue Devils.
VU sophomore Kris King (Washington, D.C.) caught fire from behind the arc in the second half Tuesday night, connecting on six of eight three-point shots and scored 20 of his career-high 26 points in the second half.
Vincennes got off to a great start Tuesday night, working the ball into the paint and putting together an early 8-0 scoring run to take an 8-2 lead.
Kaskaskia would battle back and even the score at 28-28 before VU picked up the first double-digit lead of the night with an 11-0 run to lead 39-28.
The Blue Devils answered with a pair of buckets before halftime, cutting the deficit to seven and heading into the locker room break trailing the Blazers 39-32.
Vincennes again looked to create some separation on the scoreboard early in the second half and were able to use an 8-3 run to take a 50-37 lead before growing the lead even further with an 8-0 run to take a 60-43 lead.
The teams would trade baskets for most of the later part of the second half, with Kaskaskia unable to go on a scoring run of their own before VU helped seal the game with five unanswered to take their largest lead of the night at 84-61.
Kaskaskia would score the final two baskets of the game but were unable to get back within single digits as VU closed out the 2023-24 regular season winning 84-65 over the Blue Devils.
"In the first half I thought we got out hit," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "That's the best way I can put it. I thought we were losing the screen fight in the first half. I thought we were sticking on their screens instead of beating their screens. We made enough plays to lead by seven at the half. There wasn't that big of a differential in points in the second half but I thought there was a big difference in our intensity of getting through the screen game."
"I thought in the second half we did a better job of pressuring the ball instead of sitting back and letting their guys pick it apart," Franklin added. "And we did a better job of fighting the screens. When we didn't fight the screens, they scored. Any time we got stuck, whether the came off of it and made a play or they threw it back to Jenkins and he's hitting top of the key threes, which for some reason when he sees us it's what he likes to do. But I thought we got a little tougher as the game went along. Then Kris, obviously hit some shots."
"I thought we moved the ball fairly well against the zone," Franklin said. "We've seen zone all year. We've had one bad stretch in the last 10 minutes at Logan but other than that we've been okay against zone. Like I said, we see it all the time. Everybody thinks that's going to be something that will bother us but I thought we did a pretty good job with that."
"I thought Dink gave us good energy," Franklin added. "Obviously the King twins had pretty good nights. Kris obviously shot the heck out of it. Mike was pretty good. Especially early in the game. He was getting us going when we needed it. But we got more competitive as the game went along. It's a funky night when you play on Sophomore Night. But Kaskaskia, when they play like that, is a good basketball team. When they go about their business like that, they can be a real problem. They were a problem and they would have beaten a lot of people tonight. The were 50-percent from the floor and we were guarding them pretty good. We were fighting them in a way that our defense is usually pretty good. We were a little bit soft, I thought, in the first half but as the game went along we were fighting at a pretty high level. I think they played well, we just played a little bit better."
VU was led offensively by a big night by sophomore Kris King, who closed out his final VU home game in style with a career-high 26 points and six made three-point baskets.
Sophomore Michael Osei-Bonsu (Bolingbrook, Ill.) got the Vincennes scoring going early and finished his night with 14 points, eight rebounds and four assists.
Sophomore Kent King (Washington, D.C.) got the starting nod Tuesday night and filled up the stats sheet with 11 points, a team-high six assists and five rebounds.
Freshmen Damarien Yates (Somerville, Tenn.) and Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) came off the bench to score in double figures for the Blazers, with Yates finishing with 11 points, four rebounds and a pair of steals, while Thomas finished with 10 points, four assists and a team-high three steals.
Sophomores Karyiek Dixon (Enfield, London, UK), Victor Lado (Louisville, Ky.) and Ryan Oliver (Antioch, Tenn.) also closed out their final game inside the Physical Education Complex Tuesday night, with Dixon finishing with six points, seven rebounds and three assists. Lado added six points and three rebounds, while Oliver ended his night with four assists and two rebounds.
"It's been a heck of a run for these sophomores," Franklin said. "We brought them in here when Covid was finally over to kind of get restarted after that. Last year we were a little unfortunate that we had Lebron hurt all year and still won 30 games. We still won all but one game at home and the team that beat us ended up being the National Champs and we probably gave them as good of a game as they had."
"We won all the rest of them and our schedule at home that we've played the past two years has been outstanding," Franklin added. "These are not just a bunch of JV's that we're playing. We are playing real games every night. So for them to go through that for two years and only lose one game at home and for this sophomore class to lose none at home this year, with our schedule, really was outstanding and really didn't have a game that came down to the last minute or so to determine it either."
"They have done a heck of a job to win this regular season title," Franklin said. "It's hard. These are very difficult things, especially in the old school way that we do it where we play everybody twice home and away. To go 14-2 and we missed a couple of one footers in games we had leads in or we could have possibly been 16-0. I think that's a heck of a job. Olney pushed us. Olney is a legitimate top-20 team, no question about that. They pushed us to have to go all the way to the last game of the season. We had to beat them late and we knew we couldn't lose coming down the stretch. Didn't think they would lose and made us push. But our guys did."
"I'm proud of the fact that they regrouped after Logan and finally came to my way of thinking just a little bit on how hard edged we have to be on things," Franklin added. "And I thought we did a much better job of that since then, except for the first half of this game tonight. I thought, maybe because it's sophomore night, we backed off a little bit. But really since we got back from Logan, we've been pretty tough and if we can continue that into the postseason, that would be great."
"But they've been a great group," Franklin said. "They are good guys. I've got to push them all the time because that's my job. But they are good guys. They have been guys that have been good in the classroom for the most part. There's always going to be a silly thing that young guys are going to do at some point but there have really been no major issues. They are good people to be around and I think they are going to be good men in the future. We don't trade it off when we get our guys. So for us to win games like we do or to win championships, everybody can know you are doing it with good people. Not perfect people, but good people and this group is good people. They are getting better and we'll see if we can push it a little bit further."
"To start the year top five and finish top five, win the league, really have a chance to win every game," Franklin added. "We're 27-3 and obviously our losses are to good teams on the road in games where we had a chance. To almost certainly going back to Hutch. I don't know how in the world you can possibly keep us out now. I'm proud of them, but we've got more work to do."
The Trailblazers earned the 2023-24 NJCAA Division I Region 24 Regular Season Championship Tuesday night and have secured the No. 1 seed in next week's Central District Tournament hosted by Rend Lake College in Ina, Ill.
Vincennes will begin their postseason run Monday, March 11 at Rend Lake against an opponent that is to be determined.
The Central District Tournament will continue throughout the week with the Semi-final round being played on Wednesday, March 13 and the Championship game scheduled for Friday, March 15.
The winner of the Central District Championship will earn an automatic bid into the 2024 NJCAA Division I National Championship tournament in Hutchinson, Kan. later this month.
"We're just going to have to play hard," Franklin said. "Get down in the stance, work and fight. Kaskaskia is going to make you do it. That's postseason basketball. But if you thought it wasn't going to be that way, they told you tonight it is. We know what we can do when we get determined. But we have to be determined."
"This doesn't just come to us," Franklin added. "Even this season, a lot of people had expectations like we had about four or five starters back. We had one starter back. We lost our All-American in Caleb. Four of the five starters from last year are not back. We had one starter, one guy that was a sixth man and another guy who played in the rotation at the end of the year in Ryan. A lot of guys had to improve, had to step up and had to form a new team. It wasn't like last year's team came back, that's not the case. Now, we've had guys that have seen things and been through things, so that gives you a little bit of an advantage. But this team has been developing all year. They've had great achievements throughout but they are still developing."
"I think this team was given the expectations that it was already there," Franklin said. "And it wasn't. Our leader from last year was Tasos, who is gone. Our All-American in Caleb is gone. 6-9 center is gone. Trenton Johnson, who was a glue guy and started is gone. Devawn White, who was a really good, tough minded guy that did the right things is gone. We had to have new guys step up and become leaders and get better as players and they've done that. It was like it was going to be easy for them and that's not fair. Because it's not easy for them when you look at the schedule. We're still learning how to be those leaders but we've made a big jump since we got back from Logan and at that time, we had been top-10 in the country all year. So it sounds silly for me to say it, but it's not silly, it's true. That's just the natural progression in JuCo and this team was no different."
"We didn't bring back four starters or have an All-American back this year who was the certified leader," Franklin added. "Lebron didn't practice all year last year. He didn't practice at all until the Spring after the season. They are all getting there. They are improving and they have done a heck of a job living up to some pretty high expectations coming into this season. It's almost impossible to realistically expect them to do much better than they have done when you sit back and look at it. I'm proud of them. It's good to enjoy this. But as I said in the locker room, is that it? We won the regular season. That's a great thing. We've had a great regular season and finished top-four in the country. But we've got to push forward to do more and I think they all want to, so that's what we are going to try to do."
VINCENNES BOX SCORE
VINCENNES (84): Kris King 9-14 2-2 26, Michael Osei-Bonsu 7-10 0-0 14, Karyiek Dixon 3-6 0-0 6, Ryan Oliver 0-2 0-0 0, Kent King 5-8 0-0 11, Damarien Yates 4-9 2-5 11, Lebron Thomas 3-9 3-4 10, Victor Lado 2-2 2-2 6, Team 33-60 9-13 84.
Kaskaskia – 32 33 – 65
VU (27-3, 14-2) – 39 45 – 84
Three-point goals: VU 9 (Kr. King 6, Ke. King, Yates, L. Thomas). Rebounds: VU 30 (Osei-Bonsu 8). Assists: VU 25 (Ke. King 6). Steals: VU 10 (L. Thomas 3). Blocked Shots: VU 3 (Osei-Bonsu, Dixon, Yates). Turnovers: VU 9. Personal Fouls: VU 13. Fouled out: None.
