VINCENNES, Ind. – The No. 20-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers started their postseason run with a great showing at home, winning over Kaskaskia 73-47 at the P.E. Complex.
The Trailblazers advance to the NJCAA Division I Central District Semi-Finals, where Vincennes will play host to Shawnee Wednesday, April 7, tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. eastern.
Vincennes took control of the game early, taking the lead in the first two minutes of play and never relinquished it, going on a 13-2 scoring run to take a 13-4 lead.
The Blue Devils attempted to cut into the deficit, but any comeback attempt was quickly met by a Trailblazer scoring run as VU went into the locker room with a 33-20 advantage.
Justin Archer got going early, heading into the break with eight points and seven rebounds.
Jaidon Hunter came off the bench in the first-half to score six for the Blazers.
Kaskaskia again tried to put together a comeback attempt but could only close the gap to nine points early in the second half.
Vincennes turned up the defensive pressure midway through the second half, resulting in a 12-3 scoring run to increase the Trailblazer lead to 71-42.
Hall of Fame head coach Todd Franklin emptied his bench and the Trailblazers came away with the 26-point District First Round win over KCC, 73-47.
"I thought we were pretty solid all night defensively, except for the start of the second half when we let Tillett do what he wanted, but other than that we were pretty solid," Hall of Fame head coach Todd Franklin said. "We've been solid defensively all year. I think we're probably as good as anybody in the country, we're in the top 10 in point per game. Especially the last five-six game we've probably defended about as well as anybody."
"I thought we were pretty decent offensively most of the night. I thought this was a good effort. There were spots in the game where we lost our concentration a little bit or weren't right on the spot where we wanted but overall, obviously to beat Kaskaskia by 26 is an awfully good win in the quarterfinals."
VU was led off the bench by sophomore Christian Wells, who nearly completed a double-double with 18 points and nine rebounds on the night.
DJ Brewton finished with 17 points, four rebounds and four assists.
Justin Archer ended his game with 11 points and eight rebounds and John Ukomadu finished with 10 points.
Jaidon Hunter had a big game off the bench defensively, while also managing to score six points, grab four rebounds and dish out a pair of assists.
Randy Tucker and Brevin Jefferson round out the seven-man rotation Franklin used in Monday night's game with Tucker finishing with four points and four rebounds and Jefferson getting five points and three assists.
"We're starting to find a little rotation. Perimeter substitute Jaidon Hunter coming off the bench, we really had to find someone tonight to give us something and tonight Jaidon did and that was big," Franklin added. "Christian is in a rotation with John and Justin and I think those three, when they're right and they really lock in, which has been the problem, but when all three of those guys will do their job and lock in then we can be highly effective from those three positions."
"Our lineup has been pretty solid late in the year, we've kind of found it and those two guys off the bench are probably our primary guys off the bench at this point and probably will be as we start shortening our bench come postseason time. Then we'll spot in the guys that we have to play because of foul trouble and those types of things. That top seven for us has the capability to play pretty well if we can get all seven playing at the same time."
The Trailblazers will return to the home floor Wednesday April 7 when Vincennes takes on Shawnee at the P.E. Complex. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. eastern.
VU improves their dominant home postseason record with Monday's win, improving to 31-1 in postseason games played on the P.E. Complex floor.
"We'll just tune up for Shawnee. We've seen them twice, we kind of have a good idea of what we're going to see and what we need to do," Franklin said of his Semi-Final matchup. "We'll watch the game film of them and Olney, see what maybe they've done differently. (Shawnee head coach John Sparks) is going to have them playing hard, they bring a lot of quickness and they're athletic. They had beaten Olney earlier this season at Shawnee and they led at half at Olney, so I knew John felt like his team matched up pretty well with them, so I thought that game would be pretty competitive."
"But for us, we need to get as many people as can legally get in here need to get here because we're not going to have very many times where we're playing postseason games at home, so we need to take advantage of it the best we can. We didn't really care where we played, we would have gone to Olney, we were fine with that, but this is big for us. I think if we can get a win Wednesday night, the way we're playing and what we've done, I think we have a heck of a chance of getting out to the National Tournament, I'd be disappointed if we didn't."
"But right now, we're just trying to play and play better. We've been playing better. We're obviously a much better team than when the season started and really since that Logan game at home we've had the best record in the District. We're 11-2 over that stretch and that's not a little short spirt, that's a long time. Once we put our team together, we feel confident that we can beat any of these guys if we play right."
