CHICAGO, Ill. – The No. 6-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers overcame some early struggles Saturday afternoon against Harry S. Truman College before pulling away late in the second half to pick up the 94-60 victory at Richard J. Daley College.
Vincennes looked to set the tone early, jumping out to an early 14-8 lead, before extending to their largest lead of the half at 28-17.
Harry S. Truman battled back to cut the deficit to five before VU closed out the first half on a 4-0 run to take a nine-point lead into the locker room, 34-25.
The short-handed Falcons, who only had five active players, looked to make a run to start the second half, but a 17-4 scoring run by the Trailblazers ballooned the VU lead to 70-44.
The Trailblazers found a group on the floor that worked as VU used a late 8-0 run to seal the game as VU pulled away to a 94-60 win, their 14th straight victory to begin the season.
"I thought we were pretty sloppy for 25 minutes," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "Plus you combine sloppy with not being able to hit shots, so at some point we have to find somebody that can hit shots. In the last 15 minutes we hit some shots. We got a little sharper and quit subbing. We found a group, stayed with that group and that group responded better. We still have a lot of room to go, but it was better."
"Hats off to Truman," Franklin added. "They played hard. Coach Cooksey had them ready to play. They did what they could. They stretched us. They had some guys that can do some things with the ball and hurt you and the other guys can hit a shot if you come off of them and they played to that all night."
"We just didn't put the ball in the basket or move the ball clean and sharp for the first 25 minutes," Franklin said. "There's a lot of room to improve on the last 15 minutes, but the last 15 I thought we were better. I stopped subbing. I found a group that I thought gave me a positive vibe and I stayed with that group. Sometimes it wasn't perfect. Sometimes it wasn't great. But it was positive and it's amazing what happens."
Vincennes was led offensively by sophomore Caleb Johnson (N. Preston, Nova Scotia) who came through with a big second half, scoring 23 of his game-high 27 points in the final period of play.
Johnson also recorded his first double-double of his Trailblazer career with 10 rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Sophomore Tasos Cook (Columbus, Ohio) finished with 21 points, while also dishing out a team-high six assists, three rebounds and two steals.
Freshman Kale Gaither (Madisonville, Ky.) came off the bench to reach double-figures, ending with 11 points, six assists, four rebounds and two steals.
Freshmen Kris King (Washington, D.C.) and Michael Osei-Bonsu (Bolingbrook, Ill.) each just missed a double-double, with Osei-Bonsu ending with nine points and 10 rebounds and King ending with nine points and nine rebounds off the bench.
"I thought Caleb was good the last 15 minutes," Franklin said. "Not perfect. He had a couple of breakdowns defensively. But he was good. He responded. He was not very good in the first half and I just didn't like some of the responses so he didn't get to start the second half. I thought he would respond to that because he usually has and he did. We had a really good second half, which I thought we were capable of doing throughout."
"Kris King gave us some good minutes," Franklin added. "Again, it was not perfect, but he gave us some things. Kale shot the ball in the basket a few times. He's really capable of putting the ball in the basket and really scoring, he's just really struggled to do that. That will be a big jump for our ball club when the day comes that that clicks in for him. Once he gets through that freshman wall and maybe hitting some shots in the second half will lead into that going into Wednesday because we are going to need that. He's got that in him. He was a big-time scorer, he hit those shots all preseason. So, there's something that I think is hanging out there that I think we can expect at some point in time is going to come. But we are just getting to the point where we are going to need that pretty soon with the games we have coming up."
"Michael did some good things, but we stayed with him," Franklin said. "Shilo struggled and when he sat down, we got to playing better, so he didn't go back in. I think that all of these guys need to start understanding that's what is going to happen. I've told them that. The only reason we keep going on this merry-go-round is because we haven't found those guys that are going to say, 'I don't need to come out'. So, you don't want to be on the bad end of that merry-go-round. We need to find groups that want to be out there and stay out there. That's what we are looking for and we got more of that in the last 15 minutes."
The Trailblazers will remain on the road to begin next week as VU jumps back into their Region 24 schedule Wednesday, Dec. 14 in an NJCAA Division I Top-10 showdown with No. 9-ranked John A. Logan College. Tip-off at Carterville is set for 8 p.m. eastern.
"I think it will be a good game if we play well," Franklin said. "We've got to play better than we have been playing the last couple of weeks. We will decide if we want to bad enough and if we can. To do that, we are going to have to have guys that focus in and step up and say, 'I want to do this job'. If I can find five at a time that want to be out there, then we will have every chance to make it a heck of a game. But we'll see."
VINCENNES BOX SCORE
VINCENNES (94): Tasos Cook 9-15 1-1 21, Trenton Johnson 1-5 0-0 3, Caleb Johnson 11-18 3-3 27, Michael Osei-Bonsu 4-5 1-3 9, Shilo Jackson 1-1 0-0 2, James Locke IV 2-5 0-0 5, Devawn White 1-3 0-0 2, Kale Gaither 5-10 0-0 11, Kris King 4-7 1-3 9, Ryan Oliver 0-1 0-0 0, Kent King 1-1 0-0 3, Karyiek Dixon 1-1 0-0 2, Team 40-72 6-10 94.
VU (14-0, 4-0) – 34 60 – 94
Harry S. Truman – 25 35 – 60
Three-point goals: VU 8 (Cook 2, C. Johnson 2, T. Johnson, Locke IV, Gaither, Ke. King). Rebounds: VU 47 (C. Johnson 10, Osei-Bonsu 10). Assists: VU 24 (Cook 6, Gaither 6). Steals: VU 9 (Cook 2, C. Johnson 2, Gaither 2). Blocked Shots: VU 4 (Jackson 2). Turnovers: VU 13. Personal Fouls: VU 13. Fouled out: None.