Strong second half pushes No. 21 Trailblazers to victory over Kankakee

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Trailblazer men's basketball team held firm at No. 21 in this week's NJCAA Division I National Rankings and had their first opportunity to improve on this ranking Tuesday night inside the Physical Education Complex.

The Trailblazers welcomed Kankakee Community College from Kankakee, Ill. inside the P.E. Complex and were able to pull away late in the second half to close out an 83-53 victory over the previously unbeaten Cavaliers.

Vincennes got off to a fast start Tuesday night, quickly opening a 12-4 advantage over the Cavaliers before Kankakee came storming back to take an 18-17 first half lead.

VU responded by scoring 11 straight points to get the first double digit lead of the night at 28-18 before Kankakee again battled back to cut the VU lead down to just three at 28-25.

The two teams traded baskets down the stretch of the opening half of play with VU heading into the locker room break holding a narrow 33-29 lead over the Cavaliers.

Coming out of the locker room the Trailblazers looked to make a statement early, using a 8-0 scoring run to get their lead back to double digits at 48-35.

Kankakee would continue to hang around throughout the middle portion of the second half but were unable to get the deficit back down to single digits.

Vincennes put the game into overdrive down the stretch, riding the momentum of the home crowd to score the final 18 points of the night and close out a strong 83-53 victory over Kankakee C.C.

"I thought we got more solid in the second half," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "We cut down our rotations a little bit and played the guys that were getting locked in and playing together best and that's going to happen now. I thought we opened the floor up more in the second half with some more pick and pop and extension type things with Michael and that got the floor a little more opened up."

"But mostly it was our defense," Franklin added. "We stopped them, didn't give them anything easy and that turned into a lot of transition and then when we were in the half court, I thought we got the ball moving from one side of the floor to the other better and then we took advantage of it. I thought the second half was a good half for this time of year with a new team against a good opponent, who was playing a competitive basketball game. I thought that was definitely a step up from the way that we performed last week, especially in that second half."

The Trailblazers were again led offensively by sophomore Michael Cooper (Minneapolis, Minn.), who again did all of his scoring in the second half to lead the Blazers with 28 points and five rebounds.

Freshman Jalen Calloway (Chicago, Ill.) bounced back from a tough outing Saturday night to finish Tuesday's game with 13 points, five rebounds and five assists.

Freshman Dayton Williams (Louisville, Ky.) scored in double figures for the sixth straight game, finishing his night with 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and a team-high four blocks.

Sophomore and 2024 NJCAA All-American Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) spread the ball out well all night, just missing out on his first collegiate triple-double while also securing his second career double-double with 10 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists.

Freshman Kenaz Ochogwu (E. Providence, R.I.) came off the bench to add eight points and six rebounds on a perfect four of four shooting from the floor, while sophomore Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) finished his night with eight points, five assists and three rebounds.

"Michael had a so-so first half," Franklin said. "We put him into some different situations in the second half. I've told him all along that he's in the best situation he's going to be in for the rest of his life. Our four spot, which I laugh because some guys don't always want to play the four spot, is the best spot you could possibly play if you are a guy like that with the way that we play. You're in and out, you're all over. You can drive, pass or post. You get good match ups on threes with pick and pops and all these actions and Michael is starting to take advantage of it and doing a pretty good job with it. Especially in the second half of these games. He had a good game, there's no question. Now we've just got to get him going earlier and he really will."

"I thought Lebron was more solid tonight," Franklin added. "He had a three to one assist to turnover tonight. He's still a little erratic on his takes and finishes. He's still diving in and if he just gets to level up and go straight up, he's going to start making all of them. I thought his pull ups looked better tonight. If he works at it like we want him to, I think you are going to see a game where he goes off and hits seven or eight of those and really gets locked in. I think you'll see a game like that coming up, hopefully it will be Saturday. Because they are protecting the rim and now Michael can hurt you off some of the screen and pop actions, he's going to get some pull up jump shots and he can make them he's just been a little off on his confidence and timing here early on some of it. But it's coming around,"

"But we just need him to be solid and he was solid tonight," Franklin said. "I thought he was better defensively. He stayed in front of the ball better. I thought we did a better job of that. In the first half I thought we did a decent job with it at times but I thought they went at the five spot on us and the five let him beat them with his right hand when we knew where he was going. In the second half they didn't get those and things turned. I thought we did a pretty good job of not fouling when they were walling around at us, which was key. I thought we did a pretty good job of those things and it turned the game."

"Jalen Calloway had some good things tonight," Franklin added. "He ended up with zero turnovers, there were a couple of times where I thought it could have been and he survived it. But at the end of the day, he had five assists and no turnovers and that's after having zero assists and seven turnovers Saturday, so that was a big move in the right direction."

"Dayton had a pretty good night," Franklin said. "I didn't think Dayton was quite as live as he's been. We've played a lot and he's played a lot of minutes so far this season. We're going to take tomorrow off and have two days after that to get ready for Saturday. So I expect him to be energized and flying around in here Saturday afternoon and we'll need him to be. Kenaz and Bryan combined to give us a lot at that five when you put the two of them together. Right now we're basically playing with a rotation of Bryan, Michael and Kenaz, with Bryan being a guy that can swing between the four and five, Michael's always the four and Kenaz is always the five and they are doing a pretty good job. We're starting to turn there but we are going to need to be big there. Hussein is probably going to need to step up and he needs to step up this weekend because they are going to throw some bodies at us and it's going to be a highly intense game and you never know how the whistle is going to blow."

"But we're hanging in there," Franklin added. "Vasser has not been playing. We hope he gets to where he can. Ali Sakho is going to get back in here at some point and give us a big, strong body. Travelle not playing tonight makes a big difference. He's a six-five athletic guy that we need in that rotation, so we had to survive that. There's a number of things that we are handling. Darstin has an ankle that just keeps popping up on him and he's had a hard time being out there consistently. We'll see what happens the rest of this week when we practice on Thursday and Friday. But I think that when we get at full strength and we get our team used to playing at this level. I think we will be a problem."

The Trailblazers will look to keep this momentum going as they will have another tough matchup Saturday afternoon inside the P.E. Complex, when VU hosts Moberly Area Community College from Moberly, Mo.

The Greyhounds received votes this week in the NJCAA Division I National rankings but were unable to crack the top 25 this week. Tip-off time Saturday for your Trailblazers will be 4 p.m. eastern.

"Hopefully we grow from that second half," Franklin said. "I think that there was some coming in the right direction in that second half and we'll see. I think at this point a lot of it is just about the intensity level. We are going to have to really fight for the ball and I'm still not totally convinced that our ability to go get the ball and obtain the ball when it is loose on a rebound or whatever it is, is at the level it needs to be for us to win in the big time. But I think we are capable of it."

"We're going to see if we can get that turned up by Saturday," Franklin added. "It's going to be important. It's going to be a fist fight in here, I'm sure. I'll also add we need to have people out here on Saturday. There is really no reason not to be. It's a 4 p.m. tip, I'm not in love with afternoon starts, but the way it falls Saturday, IU plays football at noon. They are going to be done by 4 p.m. There's really nothing that I'm aware of, in that 4 p.m. window. If there's a high school girls game Saturday night, you'll be able to go. If you want to go out to dinner, you'll be able to go. We are going to be playing from 4 to 6 p.m. For me, I feel it's the perfect time when you don't have any reason not to be here."

"And this is Kentucky-North Carolina in JuCo," Franklin said. "This is arguably the two greatest programs in the history of JuCo basketball. Pat Smith at Moberly is one of the greatest coaches ever. We got together to start this up again because these two teams haven't played in the regular season in a long time. We went out there last year and played in their classic and I'm sure they want all of us in here on Saturday. But this is a game where people need to circle it and be there. We have this game and Triton here. Those will be two of the biggest non-league games in the country over the next few weeks. Then we'll have Logan in here after that, which is always big for us. But when we get a Moberly or a Triton in here, we need these people to come out. I'm telling you, you can't come up with a good reason not to be here Saturday at 4 p.m. with the way that the schedule is and what's going on. If you're a Trailblazer fan or a college basketball fan, why are you not going to be in here. Really, there's really no reason and if I was a fan of basketball, much less being a Vincennes fan, I would be here Saturday at 4 p.m. and I'd try to help the Blazers get a big one."

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (83): Bryan Akanmu 4-9 0-0 8, Michael Cooper 11-18 3-4 28, Jalen Calloway 5-12 1-1 13, Lebron Thomas 4-9 2-2 10, Dayton Williams 5-7 0-0 11, Christian Andrews 1-4 0-0 3, Meyoh Swansey 0-1 0-0 0, Taveon Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Kenaz Ochogwu 4-4 0-0 8, Hussein Elmaraghy 1-2 0-0 2, Team 35-66 6-7 83.

Kankakee – 29   24 – 53

VU (6-1) – 33   50 – 83

Three-point goals: VU 7 (Cooper 3, Calloway 2, Williams, Andrews). Rebounds: VU 37 (Thomas 10). Assists: VU 25 (Thomas 9). Steals: VU 9 (Thomas 3). Blocked Shots: VU 10 (Williams 4). Turnovers: VU 15. Personal Fouls: VU 15. Fouled out: None. Technical Fouls: Cooper (2nd – 8:42).