GODFREY, Ill. – The Vincennes University Trailblazers had three players finish with 10 or more rebounds in VU's 73-55 win over the similarly named Lewis & Clark Trailblazers.
Freshman Shilo Jackson (Indianapolis, Ind.) recorded his 13th double-double of the season, ending with 24 points, matching his career-high and grabbing 11 rebounds.
Freshman Thow James Biel (Calgary, Alberta) also finished with a double-double, his second of the season, with 14 points and 10 rebounds.
Freshman Darrius Davis (Pittsburgh, Pa.) nearly completed a double-double, grabbing 10 rebounds and scoring nine points for the game.
Vincennes got off to a slow start offensively, falling behind by six points early to the host Trailblazers.
VU then responded to grab the lead and extend their advantage with a 25-2 scoring run to take a 30-10 lead.
Lewis & Clark tried to answer back and cut into the lead before the half, but only managed to cut the deficit to 19 points at the break, with Vincennes leading 42-23 at the half.
Vincennes began the second half with another slow start, allowing Lewis & Clark to cut the deficit down to 13 points in the first five minutes of the final period.
VU would pick up their intensity midway through the second half to grow the lead back to 20 points at 64-44.
Lewis & Clark continued to try to climb back into the game by the visiting Trailblazers came away with the 18-point, 73-55 win. VU's 10th win of the season.
"I'm proud of Thow," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "Him getting a double-double is great. He stepped up and gave me some better energy tonight. Now he needs to do it all the time and keep giving me more and more. That's the key to it. The results, most of the time, fall in line. Not all the time, but most of the time."
"I thought our energy was better," Franklin added. "We were talking on defense and communicating more early in the game. There was a bounce and suddenly you can play good. You allow yourself the ability to play well and by doing that, you usually eliminate playing badly. If you do those things, you usually don't play bad. It's going to be somewhere between pretty good and good or possibly really good."
"I thought those things were better early, then they were spotty from there. We were a little up and down with it the rest of the game and we still need to find a way to get 40 minutes of that. I thought we were searching for it, but we will find out more tomorrow and Wednesday night what we take from this but tonight was a step in the right direction."
Freshman Ketaan Wyatt entered the starting lineup for the Blazers for the seventh time this season and finished with a strong nine points and team-highs with eight assists and four steals.
Freshman Brevin Jefferson ended his night with six points, five assists, three steals and a pair of rebounds before fouling out with over three minutes to play.
"We've got to clean up our concentration handling the ball," Franklin said. "It's a toughness, seeing down the floor through the play, through the lane thing. Just playing with a little more grit and we've got to do better by Wednesday and I'm going to expect it from us. I don't think there's anything about that that we can't clean up."
"I thought Ketaan gave us something," Franklin added. "He hit a couple of shots, which I think he's been doing better behind the three-point line as we go along. I thought that was better tonight, for sure."
Vincennes will again hit the road Wednesday, Feb. 16 when the Trailblazers take the short trip south to Mt. Carmel, Ill. to face the Wabash Valley College Warriors. Tip-off time for this game is set for 8 p.m. eastern.
This game will begin a run of three games in four days for the Blazers, as Vincennes will host Southwestern Illinois Thursday, Feb. 17 in the annual Play 4 Kay game at the P.E. Complex at 7 p.m. eastern.
Vincennes will return to the floor Saturday, Feb. 19 to close out the Region 24 schedule by hosting the Blue Knights of Olney Central College. Tip-off time for that game will be 7 p.m. eastern as well.
"I just want us to build on this," Franklin said. "Don't go backward and don't just stay even either. We've gone backwards before. Like last Monday, we were pretty good and Wednesday against Logan we played a pretty good second half and battled to get back in it after a bad first half. Then we dropped off Saturday. Now we're back to another Monday where I think we played pretty good. What do we do Wednesday?"
"I want to see us build on this," Franklin added. "When we play badly, it looks like we are a long way away from getting this done and winning the tournament. But when we pretty well, you can see that we're not. So, the key for us is just playing well within what we do. If we can build just a little bit every day for the next couple of weeks, we're not that far off. Even though, at times, it looks like we are because we will just drop off and play bad. But when we play well, we can compete with any of these teams."
"So, we know that's where we are, if we play well and we know we're going to have to play well to win the tournament. But we want our well to keep getting better and better. So there's two parts to this. One; we want to make sure every night from here on out, we're playing well. Then we want to up it a little bit every day. If we can do that the next two weeks I think we've got a shot. We'll have as good a shot as most in that tournament if we can do that. Then when we're in the tournament, play well with what we are."
"That's all I want to see. We haven't seen that enough and that's been a problem. But we still have two weeks to rectify the problem. I told the guys before the game, that the book isn't over until you put that last period. Now, you can change the entire narrative in the last few pages and that's what we've got to do. They haven't put the final period on us yet, so we've got pages left. Tonight, we put a more positive page on. So, we've still got time, but we don't have time to lose. That's where I am and hopefully that's where the guys are, that we will act like that tomorrow when we get back to work and have that attitude when we get on the bus Wednesday and we'll try to play better than what we did tonight. If we play a little better than we did tonight, we will have a shot."
VINCENNES BOX SCORE
VINCENNES (73): Thow James Biel 6-13 1-2 14, Ketaan Wyatt 3-9 1-2 9, Brevin Jefferson 2-6 1-2 6, Darrius Davis 4-8 0-0 9, Shilo Jackson 10-11 4-5 24, Trenton Johnson 1-3 0-1 3, Devawn White 1-1 2-4 4, Grant Brown 1-1 1-3 4, Team 28-52 10-19 73.
VU (10-16, 7-8) – 42 31 – 73
Lewis & Clark – 23 32 – 55
Three-point goals: VU 7 (Wyatt 2, James Biel, Jefferson, Davis, Johnson, Brown). Rebounds: VU 38 (Jackson 11). Assists: VU 17 (Wyatt 8). Steals: VU 14 (Wyatt 4). Blocked shots: VU 3 (Jackson 2). Turnovers: VU 18. Personal Fouls: VU 16. Fouled out: Jefferson.