No. 6 Trailblazers improve to 3-0 on the season after strong win over Triton

VINCENNES, Ind. – The No. 6-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers hosted Region 4-favorite Triton College Wednesday night, in the second of three straight games against a tough northern Illinois region and came away with the 80-67 victory.

The early stages of the game lived up to the hype of a battle of two heavyweight junior college teams who will likely both earn a trip to the National tournament in April, as the two squads battled back and forth with the lead changing hands six times.

The Trailblazers got the upper hand in the middle stages of the first half, after back-to-back threes by sophomore Jaidon Hunter and an emphatic slam by John Ukomadu help VU grow a 15-point lead.

Triton would respond but were only able to close the margin to nine points before the end of the first half.

Triton continued to battle in the second-half, shrinking the margin to just four points, but were not able to complete the comeback as VU took full control of the game late and came away with the 13-point win.

"I thought tonight was a step in the right direction," Hall of Fame VU Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "Obviously, we have a long way to go, but I think we've come a long way in eight days. Early in the year I have to set a tone of intensity, because our guys don't know what it is. I thought we had sometimes tonight where our intensity wasn't where it needs to be, but I thought there were sometimes where we responded and we saw some guys elevate."

Freshman Justin Archer had another strong performance for the Blazers, leading the way with 21 points while also grabbing six rebounds.

"Justin is the hammer," Franklin said. "That's what he is right now and I think he's going to get to where he's able to step out a little and do different things as we go along but you've got to have a hammer. We've had a lot of those over the years that I've coached and we try to develop them and work with them and Justin's really the first one to really take to that."

"The hammer gets a lot of notoriety. After just about every game we're talking about Justin Archer, so it's a great job if you can get it and Justin's taken that on."

"The good thing with Justin tonight was that he didn't get in early foul trouble," Franklin added. "We sent in Deatrick Pashell in early to challenge him too. Pashell only played about five minutes, but in those minutes I think we outscored them huge, so we've got to keep building on that. But for the most part Archer played all night and one of the good things is not only that he played, but he appeared to have the stamina to play, which is only going to get better as the season goes along."

Jaidon Hunter reached double-figures in points off the bench, coming through with 13 points, four rebounds, four assists and two steals.

Freshman Brevin Jefferson and sophomore Jalen Harper helped seal the VU victory late on both ends of the floor. The backcourt duo was locked in defensively and completely shut down the Triton offensive attack late and helped provide an offensive spark late with Jefferson hitting a pair of clutch threes and Harper driving to the rim for tough lay ups.

"Jalen Harper had a better night that he's been having. Jaidon Hunter was tremendous, particularly late in the game, taking out DJ Patrick." Patrick led Triton with 28 points, hitting six of 10 shots from behind the arc.

"Jaidon did a lot of good things for us tonight, but once we put him on Patrick and gave him that assignment, that was the best thing to me because it was all intensity, fighting through screens, being on him when he gets the ball on every possession and Jaidon did it," Franklin added.

"That essentially ended their game because Jaidon's defense along with Brevin and Jalen's on-ball defense helped us get a series of stops, which led to some transition buckets as well."

Vincennes will return to the floor Saturday as they prepare to play two games in three days as the Blazers host Kankakee Saturday, Jan. 30 at 7 p.m. as part of a basketball double-header. VU will then hit the road for the first time this season as the Blazers make the short trip to Olney Central Monday, Feb. 1. Tip-off against Olney Central will be at 8:30 p.m. eastern.

"The intensity level of everyone is our number one thing," Franklin said of improvement he'd like to see heading into VU's next game. "Then it's playing to win the game, don't get in your own head, focus on what we do and then do the heck out of it to try and beat the other team. We're going to continue to push that because that's the most important thing."

"I think we've got to stop the ball better. Triton is near the top of teams on our schedule who are going to put pressure on you and they can also hit shots, so they really put pressure on you. Tonight was a pretty good test for us. In the second-half we held them to 38-percent shooting, so we did good things but I think we need to continue to work and spend some time on our half-court defense. Kankakee and Olney like to spread the floor and put up big numbers, so we're going to have to do a good job in those areas if we're going to be successful."