VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Lady Trailblazers celebrated the VU careers of six sophomores Saturday night in style, hitting 15 of 29 three-point shots in the Lady Blazers 101-58 win over Olney Central.
The Lady Blazers started four sophomores Saturday against the Blue Knights and early on the new lineup had trouble getting on the same page which allowed Olney Central to jump out to a quick five-point midway through the first quarter.
VU responded to go on a 13-1 scoring run to take a 19-12 lead. Vincennes closed out the first quarter with a six-point advantage.
The Lady Trailblazers got a few shooters into the game in the second quarter and the shots immediately began to fall.
Sophomore Anete Bluma (Saldus, Latvia) and freshman Cherrelle Newsom (Indianapolis, Ind.) entered the game and each hit three three-pointers in the quarter, as Vincennes held a 55-33 lead at the break.
The Lady Blazers continued to grow their lead in the second half, opening the third quarter on a 14-4 scoring run.
Sophomore center Macy Michels (Teutopolis, Ill.) got in on the three-point action to hit a pair of long-range shots in the quarter.
Vincennes would also get a corner three from freshman center Candela Lascorz (Huesca, Spain) and a late three from freshman Cristina Requejo (Gijon, Spain).
Requejo played a majority of the fourth quarter and posted a career-high seven points for VU.
Vincennes ended the game strong to pick up the 101-58 win over Olney Central, VU's seventh win in their last eight games.
"I thought we played really well both offensively and defensively," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Harry Meeks said. "We were able to do the things that we wanted to do. We were able to push the ball down the floor and run our fastbreak offense. I thought we did a really good job of that."
"I thought we shot the ball really well," Meeks added. "We were right at 50-percent for the game and if you can do that, you are usually going to be successful. I understand where we are and what we are all about and tonight was a really fun game to coach. Everybody played in the game, we got the sophomores to start the game and I made sure they got plenty of playing time tonight and I think they all enjoyed that."
"We tried to shorten the game toward the end and tried to only take one shot but throughout the game I really thought we ran our offense with very efficiently. We had people in the right spots and doing the right things. If we can do that, then maybe we will compete better than we did our last game."
The Lady Blazers were led offensively by Anete Bluma who came off the bench to score 16 points, grab five rebounds and dish out three assists.
Cherrelle Newsom also reached double figures off the bench, ending her night with 14 points, four assists and a team-high four steals.
Macy Michels came away with 13 points on the night, with four rebounds and a pair of assists.
Sophomore Laila Grant (Derwood, Md.) was the fourth VU scorer to reach double figures, ending with 11 points, six rebounds and a team-high five assists.
Sophomore Nina Blade (Milwaukee, Wis.) nearly collected her second double-double of the season, ending with nine points and a team-high 10 rebounds.
"Macy Michels really stood out to me with her two three's," Meeks said. "She asked me before the game if she could shoot one and I said yes. She made that one and then took on herself to shoot the second one. I would have never shot the second one, I would have just kept my perfect shooting percentage, but she turned around and made the second one too. She looked like a champ out there."
"My goal is to always spread out the scoring," Meeks said. "I don't want one player scoring 25 points per game, I like when you can spread the scoring around and everybody has a chance to score. That's the way we play and I really like that and I hope we continue to pass the ball and look for the open player."
VU will close out the 2021-22 regular season Tuesday night when Vincennes hosts Rend Lake College at the P.E. Complex, Feb. 22. Tip-off time for this game will be 7 p.m. eastern.
"I think a win like tonight can really boost your confidence," Meeks said. "That's exactly what we needed after our game at Wabash Valley. We need a little confidence to get our game back into shape. I really liked how we shot the ball tonight. I liked the way we played extremely hard. We started off the first quarter a little slow, but we rebounded from that. I thought the girls that came into the game did a really good job of raising their level of play and make it really hard for Olney Central to run their offense. I thought we did a really good job of rebounding the ball as well. I just hope that we can continue to do that and maybe have a little fun along the way."
VINCENNES BOX SCORE
VINCENNES (101): Nina Blade 2-9 5-6 9, Elena Aznar 3-10 0-0 6, Macy Michels 5-6 1-1 13, Trinitee Harris 2-6 0-0 4, Laila Grant 4-11 0-0 11, Chanice Willis 1-4 0-0 2, DayLynn Thornton 2-4 0-0 4, Cherrelle Newsom 5-10 0-0 14, Candela Lascorz 4-6 0-0 9, Kylee Shelton 3-7 0-0 6, Cristina Requejo 3-4 0-0 7, Anete Bluma 6-7 0-0 16, Team 40-84 6-7 101.
Olney Central – 17 16 11 14 – 58
VU (18-8, 11-3) – 23 32 28 18 – 101
Three-point goals: VU 15 (Bluma 4, Newsom 4, Grant 3, Michels 2, Lascorz, Requejo). Rebounds: VU 42 (Blade 10). Assists: VU 29 (Grant 5, Lascorz 5). Steals: VU 14 (Newsom 4). Blocked shots: VU 3 (Harris, Lascorz, Bluma). Turnovers: VU 11. Personal Fouls: VU 18. Fouled out: None. Technical Fouls: VU Blade (3 – 5:25).
