No. 16 Trailblazers continue to roll after physical road Region win at Wabash Valley

MT. CARMEL, Ill. – The No. 16-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers hit the road Saturday night for a Region 24 road rival game at Wabash Valley College in Mt. Carmel, Ill.

The game was another tough, physical Region 24 battle with the Trailblazers continuing their winning streak with a 72-61 victory over the Warriors.

The Trailblazers got off to another great start Saturday, riding an early 11-0 run to take a 20-9 lead midway through the first half.

The VU defense kept the pressure on throughout the opening half of play, allowing Wabash Valley only six made field goals in 20 minutes as the Blazers used a late 8-0 run to get their lead to 35-22 at the halftime break.

Coming out in the second half VU looked to keep the momentum going and grabbed their largest lead of the night at 44-27.

Wabash Valley would continue to battle and would get the home crowd into the game with a 7-0 scoring run to cut the VU lead back to 10.

Wabash Valley would get back within seven but were unable to keep the momentum going as VU outscored WVC 10-3 to get the lead back to 60-46.

The Warriors again attempted a late comeback and got the deficit back to single digits but the Vincennes offense was able to recover and close out the game strong with a 10-3 run as the Blazers picked up their 11th straight win by the final score of 72-61.

"I think pretty much in the first half, defensively we were pretty good," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "We had a couple of errors and missed a box out and gave up a three-point play towards the end of the half for them to get to 22. So we held them."

"It took us a while to get going offensively," Franklin added. "Didn't really get it going much but still ended up with 35 in the first half and other than Michael we didn't have anybody hit one from the edges, which we've been doing. We missed free throws. So we probably should have been in the 40s and held them to what they got or less, so this game should have essentially been over at half."

"But instead we've got a nice lead but it's still on an edge," Franklin said. "Then we got up 17 right off the bat in the second half and then the whistles started blowing. And the whistles blew and blew. Wabash Valley was trying to be aggressive. They basically just ran a rub screen up top back and forth to get it. I thought Burton made a couple of plays for them. We let him get to his right hand a couple of times. And we probably didn't do a good enough job on the scouting. I knew it and didn't push it hard enough about Dent coming off the bench."

"But we got Lebron in foul trouble with a couple of fouls where he didn't touch anybody," Franklin added. "So he's sitting on the bench when we're up 17 and trying to put the game away. We never really let them get back, it got down to nine a couple of times but it basically stayed there between nine and 17 the rest of the way. But we could never put it away either. Give Wabash Valley credit, they fought and played hard. Coach does a really good job with them. They fought us and battled and changed defenses and they did everything they could to keep us off rhythm. I thought we had two or three really bad turnovers in the second half. Just really bad we dribbled right into a guy's hands twice. We threw two really bad passes from the top down to the post that had no business being thrown. You get four plays like that, those can change the game from being up 18 or 20, now you're up 10 to 12 and they turned those into points a couple of times."

"So things like that we've got to clean up," Franklin said. "If we're going to try to be a Championship team we have to do better than that. We can't have those things happen and we've got to get some of these other guys on the road to step up and bust a shot from the wing. We're not having any problems making them at home, we shouldn't have any problems making them on the road. So I emphasized that after the game."

Vincennes was led offensively by another outstanding game by sophomore Michael Cooper (Minneapolis, Minn.) who secured his third double-double of the season with 26 points and 10 rebounds in the game.

Sophomore Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) had a good game offensively, shooting a perfect five for five from the field on his way to finishing the night with 12 points and eight rebounds.

Freshman Dayton Williams (Louisville, Ky.) was the third VU scorer in double figures, closing out the game with 11 points, eight rebounds and a team-high five assists.

Freshman Ali Sakho (Toronto, Ontario) provided a big spark for the Trailblazers off the bench, finishing the game with nine points and six rebounds for the Trailblazers.

"Some guys, if they are going to be in our main rotation, you've got to show up every night," Franklin said. "Tonight we had Kenaz who really wasn't here. That can't happen. Ali was scoring. Kenaz is as good at scoring or better than Ali and he had the same opportunities and he just mentally wasn't here. So we're going to have to push him a little bit if he wants to play or if he's going to get pushed out. We've kind of set him up all year for success, we've been waiting for him and it's time he fights for it. And if he doesn't, then I guess he can pass out water bottles."

"I think tonight was a good learning experience," Franklin added. "Michael, offensively, got some things done that had to be done. I thought Ali gave us a good night. He's still working his way into being what he can be. He gave us some points in there when we should have been getting points from the beginning. We started him in the second half and I would have thought he had more than six rebounds because he cleaned the glass up for us on the defensive end. So that was good. He handled the middle of the press well, didn't turn it over, made the right passes. We don't ask much more than that. I don't know if Wabash Valley's big guys ever put the ball in the basket that wasn't a free throw."

"So he did a pretty good job," Franklin said. "Ali got a little bit handsy and some of those fouls were just him being sloppy and we are going to try and get that cleaned up. But I thought he gave us a good night. There were moments late in the game where I thought Christian Andrews gave us some things. In the first half I thought Christian played the best out of any of our point guards. I thought he helped us. He guarded harder. He chased them off those little rub screens where they were trying to get threes at the top of the key. So he gave us some things. He missed some free throws, which were uncharacteristic of him. But I'm sure he will beat himself up on that when he goes into the gym and works extra hard, so I'm sure he'll make them next time."

The Trailblazers will look to keep this momentum going as they get set to hit the road again next week when the Blazers travel to Centralia, Ill. Wednesday, Jan. 29 to face off against Kaskaskia College at 7 p.m. eastern.

Vincennes will hit the road again Saturday, Feb. 1 as the Region 24 schedule resets and the Blazers get their second look at John A. Logan College, facing the Volunteers in Carterville, Ill. at 4 p.m. eastern.

"We've just got to get better," Franklin said. "We're in position to be good. We're in a position to do everything that we came here to do. But we've got to push it through and tonight was a perfect example of that. We're there and we're hanging in a position to really be a dominant kind of team but we didn't tonight. We were good enough to win, but we weren't good enough to be a dominant basketball team. I think it's there for us and I think it's what we are pushing to do. That's what I will be pushing for every practice and every day. Because that's what we are here for and I think we can do it. Hopefully we will be better and sharper on Wednesday. That's what I would hope after today. But take no credit away from Wabash Valley, they played really hard and competed. Coach did a good job with them. But I think our guys have to get sharper and that's my message."

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (72): Bryan Akanmu 5-5 2-2 12, Michael Cooper 7-12 10-11 26, Lebron Thomas 1-5 2-4 4, Dayton Williams 4-10 3-4 11, Kenaz Ochogwu 0-3 0-2 0, Christian Andrews 1-3 0-3 2, Jalen Calloway 1-3 0-0 2, Travelle Bryson 2-5 2-3 6, Ali Sakho 3-3 3-6 9, Team 24-49 22-35 72.

Wabash Valley – 22   39 – 61

VU (17-3, 7-0) – 35   37 – 72

Three-point goals: VU 2 (Cooper 2). Rebounds: VU 45 (Cooper 10). Assists: VU 16 (Williams 5). Steals: VU 3 (Akanmu, Thomas, Bryson). Blocked Shots: VU 2 (Cooper 2). Turnovers: VU 15. Personal Fouls: VU 24. Fouled out: Akanmu, Sakho.