BELLEVILLE, Ill. – The Vincennes University Trailblazers continued to climb in the National Rankings this week, moving up one spot to No. 3 in this week's NJCAA Division I rankings.
The Blazers faced a tough defensive battle Wednesday night in their first test with this new ranking against Southwestern Illinois College.
The Blazers fell behind early but were able to battle back and pick up the 69-61 victory over the Blue Storm.
Vincennes got off to a slow start in Belleville with the Blue Storm capitalizing on a pair of VU early turnovers to take a quick 6-0 lead.
VU would get the SWIC lead down to two before Southwestern expanded it back to seven at 22-15.
The Trailblazers rallied late in the first half, scoring seven straight to take their first lead of the game with 2:44 on the clock at 28-27.
The two teams would trade baskets and end up heading into the locker room the same way they started the game, with the score even at 32-32.
After Southwestern scored the first four points of the second half, the Trailblazers looked to gain control of the game with seven unanswered to take a 39-36 lead.
VU would grow their lead to seven at 48-41 before the Blue Storm answered back to even the score at 48-48.
VU would then answer with a scoring run of their own, taking a nine point lead at 57-48.
The Vincennes lead would hold at nine until SWIC cut the deficit down to three at 62-59, before the Blazers again regained control of the game with a late 6-0 scoring run to take a 68-59 lead.
Vincennes would hold this lead and put the game away, picking up their 17th victory of the season and fourth straight Region 24 win by the final score 69-61.
"We got this one done because we outrebounded them 52-32 and they shot 32-percent," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "That's why we won the game. Michael was able to keep us alive in the first half. He really couldn't quite sustain it in the second half. We've still got to get two halves and I think it's in him somewhere. Some of that is not his fault. In the second half they were collapsing around him, zoning it and doubling it because we weren't hitting from outside."
"That's why the game was close," Franklin added. "The game was close because Coach Harrington is always going to get SWIC to play hard. They are going to be physical and they are going to run their stuff hard on offense. Then they are going to by physical and chest you up and they are going to test your nerve of 'am I going to hit this open shot' and the game was close because we couldn't."
"It was a very disappointing performance from our perimeter players for the most part," Franklin said. "Lebron was a little bit better in the second half. He was pretty good in transition when we could get him there. But we really struggled to find anybody that would hit an open shot and we made some really bad turnovers because we were forcing into plays because we were afraid of the open shot."
"When you have the opens shot and you don't have any confidence in it, you're going to cause a problem," Franklin added. "Because they're not guarding you. Then you are going to throw into where everybody's guarding or drive into where everybody's guarding, then you are going to have some issues. That's why the game was close but at the end we scrapped, fought and finally made a couple of shots. Lebron hit a three, Kris hit a three, Kent hit a three, they were all times where we stepped into the shot and shot it like we should and it's no coincidence. Lebron hit one pull up jump shot and those shots were probably enough to get us extended and over when we could have done that a long time before in the game. But we won because we held them to 32-percent shooting and out-rebounded them by 20."
The Blazers were led by a monster double-double by sophomore Michael Osei-Bonsu (Bolingbrook, Ill.) who finished with 15 points and a team-high 16 rebounds, including nine offensive rebounds.
Osei-Bonsu wasted little time getting to work on the glass, heading into the halftime break with 13 points and eight rebounds in the first 20 minutes of action.
Freshman Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) was the VU leading scorer, coming up with some late baskets to put the game away and finishing with 18 points, five rebounds and a team-high four assists.
Sophomore Karyiek Dixon (Enfield, London, UK) just missed out on a double-double off the bench, coming on strong in the second half to finish his night with eight points and nine rebounds.
Sophomores Kris and Kent King (Washington, D.C.) each finished with seven points, with Kent grabbing three rebounds and Kris dishing out a pair of assists.
Sophomore Victor Lado (Louisville, Ky.) ended his night with seven points and four rebounds, all coming on the offensive glass.
"The three inside guys probably played well enough," Franklin said. "Michael, obviously, had a pretty good game. If you combined Karyiek and Victor's numbers, they were basically splitting a position. We're not getting a whole lot out of the other guys in there. But those three guys combined for 30 points and 29 rebounds, controlled the paint, controlled the other team. SWIC didn't score a whole bunch with their inside guys against them. Our inside guys beat their inside guys and that's with everybody collapsing on them. So honestly, it's hard to be too critical of the interior. They were put in a bad spot when the guards are not going to function better than that and SWIC was basically not guarding them."
"A lot of times, when they went to zone, they just didn't guard areas of the perimeter once the ball got swung," Franklin added. "So I thought the inside guys did a nice job. All three of them. Really, if you look at them and what they had to do, with Michael, Victor and Karyiek, we were finally able to get Karyiek going again and he did some good things, we've still got to get Dink going, but those three, they did their job and it caused SWIC to have to collapse their defense all the time."
"They also collapsed the defense to stop Lebron from penetrating," Franklin said. "That's why most of his buckets in the paint and at the rim were in transition. When we were able to get into transition and the floor was open, he was able to make plays. The floor opened up a couple of times when they were in man-to-man and he blew by and got some buckets when we threw a little surprise at them and we caught them. We were having to manufacture room for him because they were taking it away."
"But I thought those guys, those three interior guys, especially Michael, who was the big man in the first half when we had to have somebody or we would have been down by 15," Franklin added. "We ended up tied at the half because Michael kept us in it. Lebron, second half, offensively was better. We've still got to get him locked in defensively better. They were still getting the ball into the lane and at the basket a little too much. He's going to have to be better Saturday against Olney or we won't have a chance. But those were the guys that got it done, that's who we had to lean on and they did enough to get it done."
The Trailblazers will look to keep this winning streak going when the Blazers head off for another tough Region 24 road matchup, this time facing off against Olney Central College in Olney, Ill. Saturday, Jan. 20. Tip-off time for Saturday's game is set for 8 p.m. eastern.
VU will then return home to the Physical Education Complex Wednesday, Jan. 24 when Vincennes hosts Lincoln Trail College from Robinson, Ill. Tip-off time for that game will be 7 p.m. eastern.
"You've just got to want to take the challenge on," Franklin said. "Olney Central is a top-20 team in my opinion and they are probably a top-10 to 12 team at home. Their losses this year were on the road in competitive games at Southeastern and Triton. They beat Southeastern at home. They beat Monroe at home. Mineral Area, who I think is a top-five team in the country, they had a good game at Olney that game down to the last minute. High quality game. Big shots made. Mineral beat them in there but like I said, Mineral is a top-five team and played like it that night."
"They've gone on the road and beaten Three Rivers," Franklin added. "Now they've gone and beat Logan. They've gotten a little hot here lately after they were kind of disappointed with a loss to Kaskaskia. Kaskaskia played well that night and beat them. But with that said, these last three or so games you can see that they are starting to come on. But offensively, at home, they are really good."
"Our guys have got to know they have got to step up," Franklin said. "There's no two for 16 from guys that are getting open shots or two for 10 from a sophomore that we depend on and they're not really guarding on the perimeter. You're not going to be able to do that and win on Saturday. There's not way. So guys are going to have to take some personal responsibility and the next couple of days look in the mirror and decide if they want to be big time or not."
VINCENNES BOX SCORE
VINCENNES (69): Kris King 2-10 2-2 7, Kent King 2-5 2-2 7, Lebron Thomas 7-14 3-5 18, Michael Osei-Bonsu 7-9 1-2 15, Victor Lado 2-3 3-5 7, Damarien Yates 0-3 2-2 2, Gerard Thomas 1-9 0-0 2, Mathieu Nader-Kalombo 1-7 0-1 3, Alphonse Muteba 0-0 0-0 0, Vilhelm Bodingh 0-0 0-0 0, Karyiek Dixon 4-5 0-0 8, Team 26-65 13-19 69.
VU (17-1, 4-0) – 32 37 – 69
Southwestern Illinois – 32 29 – 61
There-point goals: VU 4 (Kr. King, Ke. King, L. Thomas, Nader-Kalombo). Rebounds: VU 52 (Osei-Bonsu 16). Assists: VU 12 (L. Thomas 4). Steals: VU 5 (G. Thomas 2). Blocked Shots: VU 3 (Osei-Bonsu, Ke. King, Dixon). Turnovers: VU 15. Personal Fouls: VU 23. Fouled out: None.