MOBERLY, Mo. – The No. 5-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers faced another tough test Saturday night, closing out the 2023 Moberly Area Community College Thanksgiving Classic against host and No. 12-ranked Moberly Area.
The Trailblazers led throughout most of the game but found themselves in a back-and-forth battle in the second half before pulling away at the end to pick up the 76-67 victory over the Greyhounds.
Vincennes got off to a running start over the host Greyhounds Saturday night, scoring the first seven points of the game and later building a 23-9 lead midway through the first half of play.
Moberly Area looked to answer back before halftime and used an 11-2 scoring run to cut the deficit down to five.
VU would get the lead back to eight before the halftime break, heading into the locker room holding a 30-22 lead over Moberly.
Moberly Area struck first to start the second half, with the Greyhounds using a 9-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 41-40.
The Trailblazers would grab the lead back and take a 55-48 lead before the Greyhounds again answered back with a 13-2 scoring run to take a 61-57 lead with under seven minutes to play.
Vincennes would swing the momentum back with a 13-4 scoring run of their own to take a 70-65 lead with under two minutes remaining.
After a Moberly layup cut the VU lead down to just three, the Trailblazers closed out the game at the free throw line, scoring the final six points of the night to come away with the 76-67 victory over the Greyhounds.
"Mostly it was just guts," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "We're running on fumes right now and we haven't had a practice day in a week where we've had anywhere near everybody on the floor and even if they were, they were just getting through it."
The Trailblazers entered the night with only 10 active players, with sophomores Victor Lado (Louisville, Ky.) and starter Kris King (Washington, D.C.) out with illness Saturday night.
Vincennes picked up some big performances first by freshman Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) who led the Blazers with 26 points, eight rebounds and seven assists and hit 13 out of 16 free throw attempts to help seal the victory.
Sophomore Ryan Oliver (Antioch, Tenn.) stepped into the lineup for Kris King and finished with 18 points, four rebounds and a pair of assists, including hitting four big three-pointers in the second half.
The story of the night however was sophomore Michael Osei-Bonsu (Bolingbrook, Ill.) who controlled the glass all night to finish with 17 points and an outstanding 18 rebounds for the Blazers, his third double-double of the season.
Sophomore Karyiek Dixon (Enfield, London, UK) just missed out on a double-double of his own, ending with eight points and 11 rebounds, while also collecting three big blocks.
"To play tonight, in this game, without Kris, because we thought he could help us as a stretch four against their style of play," Franklin added. "And you take him out completely, I can't be prouder that our guys had the resolve to do it."
"You look at the big three tonight with Lebron, we never took him out," Franklin said. "He played 40 minutes and he's been under the weather a bit like all of them. Ryan Oliver chased their scorer around defensively and you've got to play him all over the floor because he can hit from 25, 26, 27 feet out consistently. Ryan's job was to chase him, don't give him a right-hand drive. You're fighting off screens and it's a tremendous effort. Then for him to still have the legs to bust those shots in the second half, when we needed a guy to do it, because they were giving it. We had hurt them in the other areas, so we were imploring him to do that and then he did."
"We went to those areas to attack and knew if they were going to come off, we put him in the spots and he drilled them and those were huge," Franklin added. "Then you have Michael. He just dominated the glass. That man just ate that glass. And you know we're eating the glass big when Karyiek has 11 and it doesn't sound like much. But Michael, anything that was up there, he got it. Those three guys were just stalwarts and stalwarts down the stretch."
"I thought Alphonse gave us some really good minutes in the first half that were key when we had two fouls on Karyiek and Michael," Franklin said. "I thought Karyiek started to get some things done on the glass as the game went along and made some big plays there. Just across the board. But I can't say anything but positive things about this group in terms of their toughness and resolve because I knew we would try to fight today. I really did and I thought that if we could fight and do things right that we would have a pretty good chance. But I just didn't know if we were going to be capable and man, we were. I'm just really proud of them."
The Trailblazers will return home for their next game, Saturday, Dec. 2, when VU hosts Elgin Community College from Elgin, Ill. into the Physical Education Complex. Tip-off time next Saturday is scheduled for 7 p.m. eastern.
"Like everything else, we just want to take away the fact of the intensity level that you have to play with," Franklin said. "What we're expecting and what we're demanding. When we're pushing, why we're pushing. I think it's becoming clearer all the time what it takes to play for us. I think it's a misnomer, everybody thinks it's hard to play for us, it's not hard to play for us. You've just got to know your job and you've got to work every day to get as good at your job as you can. You've got to know those assignments, so when you go into the game you can just play the heck out of it."
"We don't want scared and we don't want tentative," Franklin added. "And we don't want where you're not knowing your job. We try to keep your job pretty simple and pretty repetitive every day and if you don't do that, then we ain't happy. But once you get across that bridge and understand what that is, I always think that's the best way to play, not only winning wise, but it's the most fun way to play. So we're trying to get them across that bridge and tonight was another one of those steps of guys learning so you can get the best out of them and when the game is over you know that you've emptied the tank correctly and you can start trusting the guy next to you."
"Hopefully we've built some trust and we've still got some guys that have a ways to go there," Franklin said. "They're still learning and we're up and down some with it. But I think that's the key. That's the key to our team and it's always the key to our team. That's why when those guys get it, the swear by it and they'd always come back and play for us. It's not that hard, once you understand and we're in that process of getting that. Because you can see how important that is. Those are the things that win and lose these basketball games. Knowing your job and doing the heck out of it. You don't have any fear of that other bunch, you are going to go at them."
"We don't want to play in fear," Franklin added. "We want to play aggressive, but smart. I think you can see some of those things tonight from Ryan. Whether he made those shots or not, he stepped into those shots at the right time. They were the right shot. He was ready at the right time and you shoot that ball like you mean to hit the bottom of that net at that point. That's when you do it. He did that and you see what happens. You give yourself a chance to be a good player and if you don't, then you leave the game thinking, 'well, I did everything I could. I was prepared. I busted it. I knew what I was doing. I attacked it.' If I fall short, I know I'm not going to be happy about it, but I'll go back to work and try to be better tomorrow. That's it and it's really simplistic when you say it but it's hard to get everybody to that. I think we're building to that and I think when we get to that we are going to be a hard team to beat. Obviously, we're a pretty hard team to beat right now."
VINCENNES BOX SCORE
VINCENNES (76): Ryan Oliver 7-14 0-0 18, Kent King 0-3 0-0 0, Lebron Thomas 6-15 13-16 26, Michael Osei-Bonsu 8-12 1-1 17, Karyiek Dixon 4-9 0-2 8, Damarien Yates 1-4 0-0 3, Gerard Thomas 0-1 0-0 0, Mathieu Nader-Kalombo 0-7 0-0 0, Alphonse Muteba 1-3 2-3 4, Team 27-68 16-22 76.
VU (9-0) – 30 46 – 76
Moberly Area – 22 45 – 67
Three-point goals: VU 6 (Oliver 4, L. Thomas, Yates). Rebounds: VU 50 (Osei-Bonsu 18). Assists: VU 16 (L. Thomas 7). Steals: VU 7 (Osei-Bonsu 2, Dixon 2). Blocked shots: VU 4 (Dixon 3). Turnovers: VU 16. Personal Fouls: VU 12. Fouled out: None.