No. 4 Trailblazers get five in double-figures to roll past Elgin

VINCENNES, Ind. – The No. 4-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers finished their game Saturday night with five scorers in double-figures in a big 104-58 win over Elgin Community College.

The Trailblazers got off to a bit of a slow start, after scoring the first five points of the game, VU played the Spartans even to hold a 16-11 advantage early in the first half.

Vincennes broke the game wide open after this point with a massive 19-0 scoring run to take a 35-11 lead over Elgin.

VU would continue to grow their lead before the halftime break, scoring the final six points of the period to head into the locker room holding a 50-27 advantage over Elgin.

Coming out of the locker room in the second half the Trailblazers looked to fully put the game away and a 17-0 scoring run to take a 86-36 lead, their largest lead of the night.

VU Hall of Fame Coach Todd Franklin mostly rested his starters at this point and gave the second unit some big minutes down the stretch.

VU would trade baskets with Elgin throughout the final seven minutes of the game, with VU cruising late to a big 104-58 victory at the Physical Education Complex.

"I thought, for the most part, we executed pretty well," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "We missed a bunch of free throws after we had earned the right to be at the free throw line. That got a little frustrating but that happened. We made a few turnovers because they played so far up the hill trying to take away the swing from one side to the other that they were giving you downhill drives. Sometimes you're almost feeling awkward because you're not supposed to just be able to go downhill on the front side every time and we made four or five turnovers that gave them buckets at the other end."

"But other than that, I thought we were pretty good, for this basketball game," Franklin added. "I thought we got a little too laxed a few times late and gave them some room on threes. Because they shoot the ball from about five feet further back of the line. Those little, small guards are used to being small guards and they are used to shooting from further out than people will guard them. I tried to explain that to our guys and thought there was a little stretch there in the second half where we got a little laxed and they made some shots. But the most part we were pretty good. Everybody contributed. Everybody got out there and everybody got some things going. We'll have to ratchet it up for a big weekend next weekend but it was about what you were going to get done tonight."

The Trailblazers were led offensively off the bench by freshman Gerard Thomas (Henderson, Ky.) who picked up some big minutes in the second half on his way to a game-high 19 points, three rebounds and two assists.

Freshman Mathieu Nader-Kalombo (Longueuil, Quebec) also came off the bench to score in double-figures, scoring 15 points on just eight shots from the floor, including hitting a perfect three of three from three-point range.

Sophomore Michael Osei-Bonsu (Bolingbrook, Ill.) finished his night with 12 points and six rebounds, while fellow sophomore Ryan Oliver (Antioch, Tenn.) came off the bench to put together 11 points, seven rebounds and six assists.

Freshman Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) was the fifth VU scorer in double-figures, ending with 11 points and a pair of assists.

Freshman Damarien Yates (Somerville, Tenn.) was just short of his first career-double-double finishing with eight points and a team-high 10 rebounds.

Sophomore Karyiek Dixon (Enfield, London, UK) was also close to a double-double with nine points and seven rebounds, while sophomore Kent King (Washington, D.C.) was getting really close to a triple-double with seven points, nine rebounds and seven assists.

Sophomore Victor Lado (Louisville, Ky.) came off the bench to add eight points as part of 61 total bench points for the Trailblazers Saturday night.

"That's kind of the story of our team," Franklin said. "We've got a lot of guys that we think are pretty good players and if that they share the ball and do the right things, they are all capable and we expect that. We think it's hard to really zero in on who you are going to stop with us and that was the story of tonight. I thought we shared the ball pretty well. There were times when maybe it didn't look like it because we were playing so much downhill because they were giving it and Gerard was going in and really bullying it in. But it was really the right play with how they were trying to defend us."

"We'll share the ball," Franklin added. "We obviously shot it well from behind the three-point line. There might have been one of those that might have been questionable, but out of our 17 three-point attempts, probably 16 of them were pretty good. And we shot them confidently and we hit 11. Hitting 11 out of 17 is pretty good."

"But we're capable of doing that," Franklin said. "Our main group has shot fairly well on the year. We're sitting at about 34 or 35 percent but we've had some guys off the bench that have not shot very well early in some minutes that weren't the deciding minutes of the game. If you take those out, our main guys are probably shooting closer to 37 to 38 percent and if we're somewhere between 36 and 38 percent from the three-point line on the year, we'll be pretty good. And I think we should be if we take the right ones."

"We're getting better and shooting better and guys are spending more time, now we've got to get in the gym and spend more time at the free throw line," Franklin added. "But we've shared the ball and did what we could do. There's always things you can pick apart in a game but I thought it was a pretty good effort on our part."

VU will look to continue this momentum into a very tough road matchup next weekend when Vincennes heads to Ottumwa, Iowa to take on No. 11 Indian Hills Community College Friday, Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. eastern.

This will be the first of two games for the Trailblazers over the weekend as part of the Indian Hills Classic as VU will return to IHCC Saturday, Dec. 9 to take on Sauk Valley Community College from Lee County, Ill. Tip-off time for that game is set for 4:30 p.m. eastern.

"I think it's been a pretty successful start to the year," Franklin said. "Obviously we're 10-0 playing the schedule that we've played, that's obviously successful. There's no question. With the people that we've played and then you add in the things that we've gone through. Our health and our sickness, we've had some guys dinged up that are main guys and we've lost guys at the start of big time games and at the very beginning of games and had to figure it out on the fly. We've had less than a full lineup in big time showdown games multiple times now and even against Monroe Lebron was really playing hobbled with a groin at that point and we're just trying to figure out how to get through it."

"We were missing guys for the Indian Hills game, Lebron's out and other guys are sick," Franklin added. "And the same thing against Moberly when Kris is out and Victor didn't make the trip and everybody was pretty down. So our guys have had to face some things that certainly could have been justifiable in falling short of being 10-0 right now but they have found a way to make sure that they have not fallen and it's a good trait. They've just kind of handled their business and we've handled our business of handling things as they come to us. I think our guys have done a good job with that."

"Now we'll have to handle a week of finals week before you've got to go on the road and play Indian Hills and Sauk Valley," Franklin said. "Those are two tough games. The Sauk game is going to be very difficult. You play the second game on Friday night and have to turn around and play them the next afternoon. If you win, it's a big high because you've won. If you don't, it's a big low and you're on a quick turnaround to play. But that's what you try to do. You try to put these guys in situations and you hope that you can win while you learn doing it."

"I think our team is getting better," Franklin added. "I think it's gotten better and I think there's a lot more room for it to get better. We've got a number of players, they always get better as they learn what they are supposed to do, but it's about individuals improving. As individuals improve, your team will get better and then you are able to make right choices and figure out what you can do with your team as the players get better. And I think we are seeing some growth from players and there's more growth to be there. I think they've seen enough now that they know what we're talking about and I think that most of them are embracing that and we'll just race the clock and see how good we can get at the end of the year. I think that if we can stay relatively healthy that we'll be in the race to be one of the teams that can do some real damage at the end and that's what we are trying to reach one day at a time right now.

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (104): Kris King 1-5 2- 4, Michael Osei-Bonsu 6-8 0-4 12, Karyiek Dixon 4-5 0-0 9, Kent King 3-5 0-0 7, Lebron Thomas 4-6 0-011, Damarien Yates 4-6 0-0 8, Gerard Thomas 5-9 8-12 19, Mathieu Nader-Kalombo 6-8 0-0 15, Ryan Oliver 4-7 1-2 11, Victor Lado 4-7 0-0 8, Vilhelm Bodingh 0-1 0-3 0, Team 41-67 11-23 104.

Elgin – 27   31 – 58

VU (10-0) – 50   54 – 104

Three-point goals: VU 11 (L. Thomas 3, Nader-Kalombo 3, Oliver 2, Dixon, Ke. King, G. Thomas). Rebounds: VU 52 (Yates 10). Assists: VU 28 (Ke. King 7). Steals: VU 7 (Oliver 2). Blocked Shots: VU 4 (Bodingh 2). Turnovers: VU 17. Personal Fouls: VU 16. Fouled out: G. Thomas.