CARTERVILLE, Ill. – The Vincennes University Trailblazers hit the road Wednesday night to face-off against the highly ranked No. 4 John A. Logan Volunteers.
The Trailblazers got off to a slow start, turning the ball over several times in the early stages of the game before battling back in the second half but coming up short with a 74-64 loss to the Vols.
Vincennes held strong with the top-five ranked Volunteers early in the game before John A. Logan was aided by freshman Shilo Jackson (Indianapolis, Ind.) having to sit with early foul trouble.
The Volunteers used a 10-2 scoring run to open up a 17-6 advantage of the Trailblazers.
Vincennes would try to answer back in the first half but turnovers allowed the Volunteers to continue to build their lead.
John A. Logan closed out the first half on a 13-3 scoring run to take a 42-24 lead into the locker room.
The Volunteers continued to ride this momentum early in the second half, growing their largest lead of the game at 54-30 midway through the second half.
VU began to climb back into the game with 10 unanswered points to cut the deficit to 14 points.
The Trailblazers used an 11-3 scoring run late to cut the lead to just eight points with around three minutes to play.
Vincennes held tough in the late stages of the game but the Volunteers came through at the free throw line to close out the 74-64 win over the Trailblazers.
"In the first half, Shilo getting into foul trouble was the key," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "It makes a big difference when he's on the floor and when he's not and you could see that as the game went along obviously. It was big that he got those two early fouls but that's a part of basketball."
"The second half was a tale of two things," Franklin added. "The strategy wasn't any different for us really. We kept the ball more in the middle of the floor in all of our actions. We were there most of the game, we just let them push us around in the first half. The tale of the first half was an older team, a team playing at home, came out and put their chest in us. When that happens, you have to keep those eyes up and that butt down, knees bent and you have to fight and grind. If you do that what happens is what happened in the second half. But what happened in the first half was we got into panic mode and got pushed around and turned the ball over."
"In the second half, we decided to fight and get more determined and all of a sudden we went from down 24 to down eight. We had a few chances to get some key rebounds. Some guys are still not listening to me. We knew their post players were going to go left shoulder every time and we needed to try to make them go to the other one but they got some key buckets late because of that."
"But that was just the tale of the game. The first half they came out and pushed us around. Young versus old, I guess. We didn't get appreciably older at halftime and they didn't get younger at halftime. But our guys, in the second half, decided to grit their teeth and when they did, you see that things start to breakdown and open up and we were able to get the ball into spots and I think we could have done it better earlier. But we didn't start it early enough and we gave them the advantage in the game. There wasn't anything that they did that we didn't anticipate and there wasn't anything big that was a change strategically for us at halftime. But the bottom line is we fought and battled more in the second half and in the first half we allowed them to push us around."
VU was led offensively by freshman Shilo Jackson who rallied back from his early foul trouble to record his 11th double-double of the season with 18 points and 11 rebounds.
Freshmen Darrius Davis (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and Brevin Jefferson (Indianapolis, Ind.) overcame their early turnover problems to score 13 points each.
Davis nearly missed a double-double, while also filling out the box score with nine rebounds, two assists and team-highs with three steals and three blocks.
Jefferson found the open man in the offense in the second half on his way to a team-high four assists on the night.
"There was just more fight in the second half," Franklin said. "We knew what Logan was going to do, they knew what we were going to do and we knew how to break it down and what it was going to take to win. Obviously it's never easy when you are playing a very talented team who is motivated to beat you on their home floor."
"I thought as the game went along Shilo wasn't getting the opportunity in the first half because he was in foul trouble and our guards weren't playing tough enough to be able to get it to him," Franklin added. "Because we had to run through our actions and break down the defense, which was available as the game went along. We are going to have to be able to do that when they are out there attacking us. But for Shilo it's really hard to measure."
"The guards really got pushed around and went into panic mode. In the second half they locked in and played better. They can still play a lot better than that. In the first half we got beat on every screen, every physical play out on the perimeter and in the second half we started holding our own and winning those. When we did that you saw better performances from Darrius and Brevin who really struggled in the first half."
"Brevin played way too high in the first half. He has to get lower and get tougher. We've talked to him about being more aggressive and that is what we mean. You saw tonight that he has to do that for us to have a real chance. I think he can and it makes all the difference in the world."
"So, when I say those things, I've been here before. I've been to Championship games and I know what we're talking about and hopefully they are hearing me and hopefully they are feeling it. Hopefully they've been through enough to where they can see it. When you look at these two games this week and you look at where we are at, we're right there on the cusp. Can we push through that line or not? That's the question. But we are definitely right on the cusp going into these last two and a half weeks where we're a very tough team to beat if we're competing for 40 minutes. We've had to fight to get here but you can see where we are Monday night and tonight. You can see the warts of being a young team and you can also see the promise of what we can be and so should our guys. It's in our hands to certainly make things entertaining the rest of the way, so hopefully we will."
VU will return home to the P.E. Complex Saturday, Feb. 12 when the Blazers play host to Lake Land College. Tip-off time is set for 7 p.m. eastern.
This will begin a stretch of four games in six days for the young VU squad, which should serve as a good learning experience for the Trailblazers as they get closer to the Region 24 tournament at the end of February.
"We'll see what our young team learns from tonight's game," Franklin said. "We'll find out. They just played the fourth-ranked team in the country, at their place, we let them push us around for a half. Then we decided to play after we got even farther down and we dug it back to eight, with even more chances to cut it even further at the end and really, we know why. It wasn't any fluke. We know exactly why we outscored them by 16 during that stretch in the second half and we were taking it to them pretty good and we know why in the first half it didn't."
"This is, obviously, one of the nation's best teams, on their home floor," Franklin added. "They are a really old team, we're probably one of the youngest teams in the country and here is where we are. We beat Shawnee, who is an upper half of the Region team Monday, decisively and then we came here and we let them take the play to us in the first half. Then in the second half we decided to play and you saw what happened. So. we can see where we are at. We know we can compete and we can get done what we want to get done. It doesn't mean that we will do it. But the thing these guys should be taking away from tonight is, I know what Coach is talking about. I know what it is. I know where we are. I know what we need to do and if they want it badly enough they will grit their teeth for the next two and a half weeks. Anything is possible, but if they don't, then we will look like we did in the first half tonight."
"It's a tough learning process with this team. We know that we are obviously a better team now than we were. We were getting Logan's best shot tonight on their home floor, with a nice crowd. Obviously we can compete with them. When we really play you can see that we can compete with them. Can we beat them? Well, let's give ourselves 40 minutes of competing with them and see what happens. I think it applies to tonight, it applied Monday and it applies to the rest of the Region that we've got the rest of the way. We know what they are going to do, they know pretty much what we're going to do. The strategies are there. Now it's about gritting your teeth and taking it to that next level and doing it all night. We'll see if we can. I think we can. But we'll see if this team has the willingness to bring it out. I hope that's what we take from tonight. We've got seven games left guaranteed and we could win them all or we could lose them all but I think it's going to be about how we go about it."
VINCENNES BOX SCORE
VINCENNES (64): Thow James Biel 3-9 0-0 6, Trenton Johnson 3-7 0-0 7, Brevin Jefferson 5-10 2-2 13, Darrius Davis 5-8 3-4 13, Shilo Jackson 7-8 4-5 18, Ketaan Wyatt 2-6 2-2 7, Deatrick Pashell 0-1 0-0 0, Team 25-49 11-13.
VU (9-15, 6-7) – 24 40 – 64
John A. Logan – 42 32 – 74
Three-point goals: VU 3 (Johnson, Jefferson, Wyatt). Rebounds: VU 32 (Jackson 11). Assists: VU 10 (Jefferson 4). Steals: VU 4 (Davis 3). Blocked shots: VU 4 (Davis 3). Turnovers: VU 21. Personal Fouls: VU 18. Fouled out: None.