VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Trailblazers finished off their Region 24 schedule and a stretch of seven games in 12 days for the VU men's team with a big 56-53 overtime win over the Blue Knights of Olney Central College.
This game Saturday night was going to be an offensive struggle from the tip, with the Blazers holding a narrow one-point lead midway through the first half.
Vincennes gained an advantage late in the first half with a big 16-3 scoring run that gave the Blazers a 12-point, 23-11 lead.
Olney Central would close out the first half with a response of an 8-0 scoring run of their own as the Trailblazers headed into the locker room at the break leading 23-19.
The Blue Knights looked to continue to ride this momentum in the second half, but neither team could seem to score.
Olney Central took the lead back just after the midway point in the second half on an 11-0 scoring run to take a seven-point lead.
Vincennes rallied back on their home floor to take the lead back at 42-41 with 1:22 remaining on the clock.
After a pair of free throws by freshman Brevin Jefferson (Indianapolis, Ind.) VU held a three-point lead.
The Blue Knights raced down the floor and found open space to hit a three with under five seconds to play to tie the game and send it to overtime.
The defensive battle held strong in the overtime period, with the Trailblazers taking a one-point lead with 32.9 seconds remaining.
Vincennes would close out the game with a pair of Jefferson free throws with 6.7 seconds on the clock, as Jefferson scored nine of the Trailblazers 12 points in the overtime period.
The Blue Knights last second shot came up short as freshman Devawn White (Montreal, Quebec) grabbed the rebound and sealed the Trailblazer win with the final score 56-53.
"I thought defensively, obviously, we were good," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "We held them around 28-percent shooting. I thought we did a good job. When you can't score, any mistake you make defensively is magnified. But when you hold a team to 28-percent shooting, you are not going to do much better than that."
"Defensively we were fine. We gave us 12 offensive rebounds and had 29 defensive, so the percentage is not perfect," Franklin added. "But it's not awful. It was still winnable given the situation. We didn't turn the ball over but we just couldn't get anybody who would or could make a play. We were telling them to go and we were setting up actions and screens, but I can't explain why that happens. Our message certainly was not that going into the game and coming off a pretty good performance on Thursday and really we had a pretty good performance on Monday, plus we were pretty good for 30 minutes at Wabash, we just didn't finish with any toughness."
"We knew Olney was going to use a zone defense. We were prepared for that. But at some point you have to have somebody get into a gap off of those screens and you need someone who can draw in the defense, kick it out and somebody hit a shot. They were undersized in the post and we really felt like we had situations where we could pin them and score and we just didn't have anybody to do it. I don't know why because I know they could. I told them after the game that it's not me telling them that they can't do something, it's them telling everybody that they can't do this. At some point that has to change or you are not going to have a chance, but that's where it is. We just have to go and make plays."
"We're not going to win many games shooting 19 for 63, but they have got to get outside of themselves if we are going to make a run in the tournament. I think we can win and I think we can compete with everyone in the tournament if we just take what we did Thursday night and move that up a little bit. If we play two halves against Logan, we're right there. What we did against Shawnee. What we did for 30 minutes against Wabash. These are the best teams we are going to have to beat, so we can do that, we just need to take our game up and not slide back. Tonight, we didn't slide back in terms of turnovers. We didn't slide back defensively. We really didn't slide back in terms of rebounding. It wasn't great but it wasn't a collapse there. So, with some confidence, intensity and snap on offense, anybody wanting to step up and do that and there was really no where to go tonight. We were trying to get Shilo to post up. We were trying to get Brevin to attack and it would be nice if we could find anybody who could hit one out of the corners but that's just where we are."
Brevin Jefferson was the only Vincennes scorer to reach double figures, ending with 17 points, all coming in the second half and overtime periods. Jefferson also added three rebounds and three assists.
Devawn White led the Blazers with 12 rebounds on the night, including 10 defensive rebounds, while also adding five points.
Freshman Darrius Davis (Pittsburgh, Pa.) controlled the glass early in the game, grabbing eight rebounds in the first half on his way to 11 on the game, including six offensive rebounds. Davis would score five points and dish out a pair of assists.
Freshman Ketaan Wyatt ended his game with nine points and found the open man well on offense on his way to a team-high five assists on the night.
"We just kept imploring Brevin to get aggressive and hit the gaps, hit the seems and come off the screen hard and look for the shot," Franklin said. "You have to have some aggression there and when he finally got some aggression, it wasn't perfect, it wasn't going in all the time, but he hit a couple of big shots. But he was also drawing fouls and hitting his shots from the foul line. There is just a point where you have to be more aggressive from your main players. Your main players, still inside of what they do, still have to go out and make plays. We're imploring him to be more aggressive all the time. He was more aggressive against Southwestern and hit some shots."
"I thought Devawn was aggressive and fought and battled and was good on the boards for us," Franklin added. "Which was key. Defensively we were okay. We were pretty good except for a few mental errors where we would give up an open shot, that we have to clean up but I thought we were fine there. We've just got to find some confident guys that want to go out and make a play on offense. I think they can do it. I think they can do far better at that, but they have got to believe that they can."
Vincennes will finally have a few days to rest and recover before they close out their 2021-22 season at home against NJCAA Division II No. 19-ranked Henry Ford College.
VU will take on the Hawks Thursday, Feb. 24 at the P.E. Complex. Tip-off time is set for 7 p.m. eastern.
"I just hope that we take from tonight that I don't want to go out like that offensively," Franklin said. "Hopefully we will be able to get our legs back. We will be off tomorrow and we will get three days of practice and that's not something we've had a ton of here lately."
"Sometimes we just come out a little flat here I guess," Franklin added. "Hopefully we can get all of ourselves underneath us. A night like tonight can sometimes be good because you can sometimes get into that mode of 'I'm not going out like that' and they just need to come out and clinch those jaws and say, 'I'm taking it'. I'm going to go take a shot like a mean it and attack like I mean it. Hopefully that's what will happen this week and we will work on somethings that will give us the opportunity to do it. Hopefully we will be sharp against a really, really good team Thursday and send us into the tournament ready to play."
"I have not given up on the idea of winning the Region tournament. I never have and I won't. I still think that if I can get them to play with some confidence, sharpness and toughness, I think right now we can make a run to do it and I won't believe we can't until it's over. That's my message and that's what I want to see and if these young men really want that then they will have every opportunity because that's what I'm selling."
VINCENNES BOX SCORE
VINCENNES (56): Shilo Jackson 3-5 0-2 6, Ketaan Wyatt 3-7 2-2 9, Devawn White 2-7 1-3 5, Brevin Jefferson 3-17 10-10 17, Darrius Davis 2-9 1-2 5, Thow James Biel 3-10 1-1 7, Trenton Johnson 2-5 0-0 4, Deatrick Pashell 1-2 1-1 3, Team 19-63 16-21 56.
Olney Central – 19 25 9 – 53
VU (12-17, 9-9) – 23 21 12 – 56
Three-point goals: VU 2 (Wyatt, Jefferson). Rebounds: VU 41 (White 12). Assists: VU 10 (Wyatt 5). Steals: VU 3 (Jackson, Wyatt, Davis). Blocked shots: VU 3 (Jackson 2). Turnovers: VU 7. Personal Fouls: VU 12. Fouled out: None.
