No. 5 Trailblazers battle from behind to pick up Region 24 win over Shawnee

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Trailblazers climbed back into the top-five in this week's NJCAA Division I National rankings, moving up one spot to No. 5.

The Blazers looked to be off to a quick start Wednesday night when VU hosted Shawnee Community College from Ullin, Illinois, but quickly fell behind after going cold offensively late in the first half.

Trailing by as many as 11 in the second half, the Trailblazers battled their way back to pick up a 67-62 victory over the Saints.

Vincennes got off to a quick start Wednesday night in front of the home crowd, scoring 12 of the first 15 points of the game to build an early nine point lead, which would hold at 16-7.

Shawnee would come to life though midway through the opening period, outscoring VU 11-2 to even the score at 18-18 and later use a 12-2 run to take a 30-21 lead.

VU would cut the deficit down to eight with a late free throw to end the first half, heading into the locker room trailing Shawnee 30-22.

Shawnee continued to ride the momentum of their first half run into the second half, building their largest lead of the game at 37-26 and holding a 41-31 lead.

VU answered back in a big way to swing the momentum back with 11 unanswered to take a 42-41 lead with just under 12:30 remaining on the clock.

The lead changed hands nine times during the second half of play, with VU trailing by four at 50-46 before rallying back again to take a 51-50 lead with under six minutes to play.

Vincennes got a big late game boost from back-to-back threes by sophomore Kent King (Washington, D.C.) and freshman Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.), connecting from behind the arc just before the shot clock buzzer sounded to give the Blazers a 61-56 advantage.

This lead would hold for the Blazers as VU put the game away at the free throw line, giving Vincennes the 67-62 victory over the Saints.

"Cold would be an understatement to describe the end of that first half," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "We just quit functioning. Over the last two and a half weeks I've said that I'm going to sit over here and there's no more 'I can't play because Coach is being too tough'. I'm still giving the instructions and I didn't see any reason in the world why we shouldn't be able to function but we didn't."

"We were in a position early to really put them down and in trouble," Franklin added. "The game was really sitting there and it was there for us to take control of the game and we went from that to nobody functioning. We've got an army of sophomores. We've got an army of sophomores who have been through it and have played in an Elite Eight. Been in big games, been in these positions, etc. But if you watched that half, did you see anything that said we have a bunch of old sophomores? So it's a problem."

"Somehow I haven't gotten across to them whatever it is, but we can't continue with that," Franklin said. "We'll see if we make some changes before Saturday because that can't happen. Shawnee doubled the post. That's it. They totally sold out to double the post. We work on that, obviously, because we go into the post all of the time. We train for that and have actions that get us open, but it really didn't matter because we really didn't want any part of it. The perimeter didn't want any part of it. They didn't want any part of an open shot. The post still could have gone up and scored but they didn't go through it with enough intensity."

"Shawnee either did that, or they would pressure our guards, saying we can't handle that," Franklin added. "They went to total disrespect for our perimeter guys from the tip and that was the gameplan. We've got to find some perimeter guys that want to take up that challenge."

"As the game went on, I got up and had to get a little more active and we had 45 in the second half by pulling teeth," Franklin said. "It wasn't pretty. There were a lot of errors and things that are not supposed to happen. The discipline is not there but defensively I thought we were able to get stops whenever we held true to the gameplan and the scouting report. But then we would just give them a right hand drive. It was bizarre behavior in a lot of ways and that's no disrespect to what Shawnee did but you can watch what I'm saying."

The Trailblazers were led offensively by Lebron Thomas who finished with a game-high 20 points, to go along with five rebounds.

Sophomore Michael Osei-Bonsu (Bolingbrook, Ill.) picked up a double-double off the bench, his ninth of the season and 15th as a Trailblazer, finishing with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Sophomore Ryan Oliver (Antioch, Tenn.) was the third VU scorer to reach double figures, ending with 10 points along with five rebounds and a pair of assists.

Freshman Damarien Yates (Somerville, Tenn.) came off the bench to finish with a very efficient nine points on just three shots from the field and sophomore Kent King also came away with seven points and six rebounds off the Trailblazer bench.

"In Lebron's case he was six for 19, Mike was four for 12, those are winning defensive numbers," Franklin said. "Good night, bad night, this time of year, you can't have bad nights. So, they scored a lot of points but took a lot of shots and we didn't hit very many. We've got to get where we can consistently be better than that."

"We're trying to figure out where we want to play Dink," Franklin added. "Trying to get him in there at the three, he struggled a little bit with his ball handling. We got him in there in the second half when they were playing zone and got him into the high post when we couldn't get anybody else to do it and he just caught, turned and shot it instead of trying to dribble it and easy shot, easy make. He got a top of the key play where he could stretch it a little bit and hit a shot. I thought he tried, he's just young and raw and we should be having the sophomores that we're depending on but that didn't happen tonight. He may help a lot, we've just got to figure out the way to best use him and coach him up and get him as well as we can."

"We challenged some guys to rebound the ball better," Franklin said. "You didn't see any evidence of that even tough we beat them up on the glass. The physical effort I thought was okay in the second half. There were a few times where I thought we could have gone after a loose ball harder and a few times where we've got to decide if we are going to be all in for it or not. But for the most part, I thought the physical effort in the second half from most of the guys was good enough. The emotional and mental effort is still shaky. But the physical effort, for most of the guys, was good enough. Obviously, we won the second half pretty well, if we had done that in both halves this would have been a pretty solid win. The effort was better in the second half, but you were still pulling teeth to get guys to play with some discipline and some assertiveness and some sharpness."

"Whether one guy is a little tight, well, I don't know why you are tight," Franklin added. "We want you to make this play. Some people might think we don't but that's not coming from us. Or are you just undisciplined. I think there's a combination of things that went on out there. We were off a week and you could use that as an excuse but it really had nothing to do with it. We came out of the game at first and were fine. Could have been up bigger but we were up nine at one point and really had them pegged to stop at one end defensively and get plenty of stops and they were going to struggle and at the other end, we knew where to get shots. There was never a time that I couldn't call an action down there and function to where we could get an open shot. You're just not going to get a layup because they are all packed in the lane. So while I can't get you a layup, anything else I can get you pretty solidly."

"But like I said, it was disappointing to me, but there just has to be some changes," Franklin said. "I want guys that are excited about playing. Excited about competing. If it's too much pressure, then you're not too excited about playing because that's what this is. We're trying to win a District title, National title, all of those things, so like I've said many times, you can't take the pressure off. The pressure is what it is. You either like it, embrace it, learn how to deal with it and want it and are looking for it or it's going to eat you up because we can't pull it off of you. It gets pulled off of you when you're not good anymore. But if you are in a position to be good, you've got pressure and you've got to love it. That means it's important. That means it matters. So I don't want to hear about pressure. I don't want to deal with that because if we lose, we lose and I can handle that. But you've got to play. You've got to know how we play and you've got to be smart about how you play and then you play. That message has always been simple, anybody who has ever played for me will tell you that. You can have perception, but perception is not reality on that one. So if you are not enjoying the pressure, then you should be out there because that should be reserved for the people who want that. Hopefully we can find some people who want to embrace it."

The Trailblazers will get back to work over the next two days as VU looks to come out even stronger in their next game, Saturday, Feb. 10 when Vincennes hosts Lake Land College from Mattoon, Illinois. Tip-off time Saturday is set for 4 p.m. eastern.

"We've got to find guys that want to focus in and the moments not to big for them," Franklin said. "That a wide open shot is not a bad thing or at least they are going to work to do it. We have no starters going into tomorrow's practice and some people will think that that's just coach speak, it's not. That out there tonight, whether I haven't done a good enough job, there wasn't anything out there tonight that we haven't covered over and over again. We were never confused. We might look like it, but we were not confused about what needs to be done to aggressively and positively attack it."

"If we aggressively and positively attack things with guys that look like they want to take on the job and we get beat, man I've lost number of times in my life, that's okay," Franklin added. "We're just too excuse oriented. No matter what it is, there's always some other reason. You are not going to win with that. Not only is it something that you don't like, but we've got to have guys that want to take that responsibility. That's part of it. It's my team and we are not as disciplined as we should be. We are not as sharpe as we should be, so that's on me. That's my fault and I'm going to take responsibility for it. I've tried to do certain things and starting tomorrow I'm going to try to find people that will. So, there are no sacred cows on this team. I can assure you. Because the way we were playing right there and the way we reacted to what we were doing, we're not going to win nothing."

"So if somebody's going to think that I'm going to sit over here afraid that we might not win if I make changes, if you just watched us, we are going to have to play better to have a chance to do anything," Franklin said. "Old guys have had a lot of chances. And there's not many more experiences that we can put them through. So there's a point here where you've got to give me something different. Because if the other team can know and scout you and literally play in a way that you can predict that they are going to play and show you no respect whatsoever, that's a problem."

"It's not me telling them what they can't do, it's the other team saying it and then you are seconding that," Franklin added. "So we've got to find some people that can because we will know what we are supposed to do against the doubles. I'll reiterate that again over the next couple of days, but that is handled every day with us. Obviously, I've got to do a better job and I've got to do a better job of finding the right guys who are going to stand up competitively in the moment. If we get beat, then we get beat but handle it right. That last 10 minutes of the first half tonight and I let it go, I was still calling the actions and the plays but I didn't call time out and do all of those things and we were all just standing there like we were looking for something to save us. I need the guys that are going to save us. That's what you are supposed to have this time of year. So that's what we will be looking for. Guys that at least want that job."

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (67): Kris King 1-4 2-2 5, Karyiek Dixon 2-7 0-0 4, Victor Lado 0-1 2-2 2, Ryan Oliver 3-6 3-4 10, Lebron Thomas 6-19 6-9 20, Damarien Yates 3-3 2-4 9, Gerard Thomas 0-3 0-0 0, Alphonse Muteba 0-0 0-0 0, Kent King 1-2 4-4 7, Michael Osei-Bonsu 4-12 2-4 10, Team 20-57 21-29 67.

Shawnee – 30   32 – 62

VU (21-2, 8-1) – 22   45 – 67

Three-point goals: VU 6 (L. Thomas 2, Kr. King, Oliver, Yates, Ke. King). Rebounds: VU 48 (Osei-Bonsu 11, Dixon 11). Assists: VU 15 (Kr. King 3, Dixon 3). Steals: VU 2 (Yates, G. Thomas). Blocked Shots: VU 5 (Kr. King 2, Yates 2). Turnovers: VU 14. Personal Fouls: VU 16. Fouled out: None.