Williams leads No. 18 Trailblazers to big win with perfect shooting game

VINCENNES, Ind. – The No. 18-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers opened up their weekend slate at the 2024 McDonald's Classic Friday night inside the Physical Education Complex.

The Blazers went wire-to-wire over Richard J. Daley College in a 112-59 victory aided by 25 points on a perfect nine for nine from the floor shooting performance out of freshman Dayton Williams (Louisville, Ky.).

Vincennes got the offense going early Friday night, jumping out to an early 24-7 advantage before extending their lead even further with a 14-0 scoring run to take a 38-12 lead midway through the first half.

Vincennes continued to add pressure down the stretch of the opening 20 minute period, outscoring Daley 14-5 to end the first half with a 56-23 lead over the Bulldogs.

VU continued to roll into the second half, using an early 8-0 run to get the Trailblazer lead to 72-28 before later using a 9-0 scoring run to take an 88-36 advantage.

The Trailblazers closed out the game strong, crossing the century mark on the scoreboard for the first time this season and closing out the big 112-59.

"Well it's always better when the ball goes in," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "We haven't hit a lot of shots from the outside when we played in jamborees or our first two games of the season, even though we've had the capability of shooting it well in the preseason before we started playing."

"I tried to so some things this week to just get it more solid," Franklin added. "Keep it simple. It's, here's what your doing and it's real basic and really simple and we're going to make sure that we're there. Maybe that helped out with the balance a little bit. When guys are balanced when they shoot it instead of, I probably had them moving around trying to do too much for a young team like this. We tried to get back to basics and tried to be a little more physical in the block."

"We tried to be a little more simple in our movements outside," Franklin said. "Just worry about spacing and simple actions and it worked for tonight."

Vincennes was led offensively by a big night by freshman Dayton Williams, who finished with 25 points, six rebounds, three assists and three blocks on a perfect nine of nine shooting from the floor, including hitting seven of seven from three-point range.

Freshman Kenaz Ochogwu (E. Providence, R.I.) just missed out on a double-double, making a big impact off the bench to end his night with 19 points and eight rebounds.

Sophomore Michael Cooper (Minneapolis, Minn.) recorded his first VU double-double with 15 points and a team-high 11 rebounds on the night.

Sophomore Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) also finished the night with 15 points, four rebounds and three steals, while freshman Travelle Bryson (Anderson, S.C.) came off the bench to score in double figures, ending with 13 points and six rebounds.

Sophomore and 2024 NJCAA All-American Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) distributed the ball well all night, finishing the game with a team-high 11 assists, along with six points and five rebounds.

Freshman Jalen Calloway (Chicago, Ill.) just missed out on scoring in double figures in the first start of his collegiate career, scoring nine points, with seven assists and six rebounds.

"I thought there was a number of good things in the box score tonight," Franklin said. "I didn't think we moved our feet defensively very well in the second half. We were okay in the first half. In the second half I thought we started hopping instead of getting down and moving them. Particularly at the four-spot. Their four was attacking us and I'm not really pleased with that but there were a lot of good things out there."

"It was great to see Kenaz," Franklin added. "Kenaz has got talent. He has ability, he's just raw, young and doesn't know. We're trying to make it simple for him now and just play the heck out of this and if he does then he can help us and somewhere down the line he can help us a lot, if he can really work and learn."

"I thought we were more explosive down there," Franklin said. "We had a little more pop and a little more oomph. Somebody might feel us a little bit better than they did last weekend with him getting more minutes. We challenged all of them and if you are not playing hard or if you give up something easy, you're coming out and that's what we are going to do."

"We're really trying to get fundamental, simple and tough," Franklin added. "I think with a new ball club like this, that's what we are going to have to do and we may have to do it forever. I don't know if we will move past that, but we are going to try to get solid. We got the turnovers down a little bit until we got a little sloppy late and started throwing it around. I think some of that also helps. But that's just how it is. That's how we are going to have to play and how we are going to have to be with this new squad."

"I think we can be a good ball club," Franklin said. "You can see that out there. There are just things that we have to clean up and keep pushing. I think all of JuCo is in a pile. You can see it with all the teams that lost last week, Triton got beat today. Everybody is just kind of there and who is going to focus in, harden up and work their tail off and improve over these next two to three months and try to separate from the pack. I think everybody is basically in the same pack and we're included in that. We're trying to get across to our team that it's all about being tough and fundamental and trying to be energetic about that and competing your tail off and I thought we did better at that tonight."

The Trailblazers will look to continue this momentum into their next game when VU closes out the weekend against Kennedy-King College tomorrow, Saturday, Nov. 9 at 7 p.m. eastern on Homecoming Night at Vincennes University.

The Kennedy-King Statesmen fell in the first game of the McDonald's Classic Friday evening 82-77 to Olney Central College.

"I just want to be better," Franklin said. "I'd like to be a lot better. I'm not really saying that I'm going to be patient with little incremental improvements, no. We want to be right. We want to be competitive and tough. We want to play 40 minutes and we want to get closer to playing 40 minutes right."

"I didn't think we responded really well to the back-to-back last weekend," Franklin added. "That's something you do when you're young and new and haven't toughened up enough. So we'll see tomorrow because Kennedy-King did a nice job against Olney today in a very competitive game. They are about in that level where we've seen a lot of teams in that level."

"They are more than capable of beating us if we don't play well," Franklin said. "So, it's a competitive basketball game. We'll see how we respond and come to shoot around tomorrow. Are we better tomorrow than we were tonight. I hope a lot better and I think we were better tonight than we were last weekend. We just have to race that race all year long and see where it gets us. But that's what I want to see tomorrow."

VINCENNES BOX

VINCENNES (112): Bryan Akanmu 7-9 1-3 15, Michael Cooper 7-11 0-0 15, Jalen Calloway 4-10 1-2 9, Lebron Thomas 2-6 2-2 6, Dayton Williams 9-9 0-0 25, Christian Andrews 0-1 0-0 0, Meyoh Swansey 0-8 0-0 0, Taveon Smith 2-4 0-1 4, Travelle Bryson 5-10 0-0 13, Darstin Onye 0-3 0-0 0, Kenaz Ochogwu 9-14 1-4 19, Hussein Elmaraghy 3-4 0-0 6, Team 48-89 5-12 112.

Richard J.Daley – 23   36 – 59

VU (2-1) – 56   56 – 112

Three-point goals: VU 11 (Williams 7, Bryson 3, Cooper). Rebounds: VU 54 (Cooper 11). Assists: VU 33 (L. Thomas 11). Steals: VU 16 (Akanmu 3). Blocked Shots: VU 4 (Williams 3). Turnovers: VU 16. Personal Fouls: VU 13. Fouled out: None.