VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Lady Trailblazers found themselves playing from behind most of their game Monday night against Rend Lake, trailing 61-51 heading into the fourth quarter.
Vincennes began the fourth quarter firing on all cylinders, starting the final 10 minutes of play by going on a 12-2 scoring run to even the game at 63-all with seven minutes to play.
The two teams traded baskets until a three by sophomore Reeva Hammelman gave VU a 77-74 lead.
Rend Lake answered with an and-one to even the score again with just five second left.
Sophomore guard Shaila Beeler was fouled on the ensuing play and hit one of her two shots from the line, missing the second forcing Rend Lake to race down the court where the Warriors would miss a lay up attempt at the buzzer.
Vincennes came away with their 13th win of the season by the score of 78-77.
The first quarter was a back-and-forth battle, with Rend Lake holding the narrow one-point lead after the first 10 minutes of play.
The Warriors grew their lead in the second quarter, leading by as many as 13 points, before heading into the locker room with a 44-33 advantage.
The lead changed hands 10 times in the first 20 minutes of play.
The third quarter looked to be more of the same for VU. Costly turnovers allowed Rend Lake to cut off any comeback attempt the Blazers tried to start.
Vincennes shot an impressive 50-percent from the field in the second half, most of which coming in the fourth quarter.
On the night, the lead was tied 12 times and the lead changed hands 11 times.
"We talked about how we needed to play, there were really three things that we needed to do a lot better than what we did in the first half, rebound the ball, don't turn it over and play better defense," VU Hall of Fame head coach Harry Meeks said. "The first four or five possessions I thought we played really good defense, then we went back to playing man-to-man, didn't give up as many easy shots. Against our zone, they had that zeroed in, they were scoring against our zone, so it was the smart thing to do, to get out of that."
"We couldn't make a shot. The big thing offensively was we didn't make many shots in the first three quarters and when we did make shots we seemed to give up quick baskets on the other end. Rend Lake is a well-coached team, they play hard. This is the game of the year for them. All these Illinois schools, when they come over here, you know you're going to get their best shot. It's been like that for years. They make our kids play the best they can and I think in the fourth quarter we measured up. We showed them that we could measure up. The game was a physical game, which at times in the second-half seemed to favor us."
"I think in the following game coming up we'll do a better job blocking out, we'll do better on defense and we'll work on our offense. There's nothing wrong with our offense if we just make a few shots. We saw what we did in the fourth quarter, we start making shots, everything looked a whole lot better. We were more aggressive going to the basket and I think that was the most important thing we did offensively. We forced them to foul us or we scored."
VU was led offensively by sophomore Amani Brown, who finished with 22 points, 12 of which coming in the first quarter. Brown also added five assists and three rebounds.
Reeva Hammelman finished the night with 17 points on four of six shooting from behind the arc, while also adding five assists and two steals.
Shaila Beeler ended her night with 15 points, including the game-winning free throw. Beeler also came away with four blocks on the game.
Alexis Radcliff was the fourth Trailblazer to reach double-figures, finishing with 12 points and six rebounds on the night.
VU's starting five did most of the work scoring the ball, with Brown, Hammelman, Beeler, Radcliff and Nina Blade combining for 72 of Vincennes' 78 points with Blade added six points and a team-high 10 rebounds on the night.
"We've been talking about 'stand up, be counted' in these tough basketball games. We played two really tough teams back-to-back, with very little rest in between. We keep talking about getting what we do in practice on to the game floor and I thought we did that in the fourth quarter. We got some things to look like what they look like in practice and I think that is a really big point that coaches look for."
The Trailblazers will now finally get some time to rest and practice before their next game as VU just completed a run of four games in eight days.
Vincennes will hit the road Saturday, March 27 to take on the Blue Angels of Kaskaskia College. Tip-off Saturday is scheduled for 2 p.m. eastern.
"We need some rest," Meeks added. "We've got some young ladies with some little nicks here and there. We'll give them tomorrow off, we're going to come back light Wednesday, but we intend to be back at full practice at the end of the week. I think with two or three days of really good, hard practice at the end of the week and we'll be ready for Saturday."
