No. 16 Trailblazers get 10th straight win going wire-to-wire over Olney Central

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Trailblazers jumped up eight spots this week in the NJCAA Division I National rankings, checking in this week at No. 16, while also holding the No. 7 spot in the JUCO Advocate Media Poll and No. 6 in the Nielsen File Top 25 rankings.

The Trailblazers showed why they deserve to continue to climb in the rankings Wednesday night inside the Physical Education Complex, posting a big 102-58 Region 24 victory over Olney Central College.

This is the 10th straight victory for the Trailblazers and their fourth straight win leading from tip to buzzer.

The Trailblazers have not trailed in a game since early in the second half against Volunteer State Community College back on Jan. 4.

Vincennes was able to get the game started with another big early run as VU quickly took control of the game and held a big 24-6 lead over the Blue Knights.

VU was able to get ahead early with the help of seven big first half three-pointers, shooting an impressive 41 percent from behind the arc in the first half.

VU continued to add to their lead and closed out the first half on a 7-0 scoring run to take a 54-27 advantage into the locker room at the break.

Coming out in the second half Olney Central looked to battle back early but were unable to chip away at the big deficit.

Vincennes used a 17-4 run to increase the lead to 78-40 before emptying the bench at about the eight minute mark and putting the game in cruise control.

The VU reserves continued to connect from long range throughout the second half, hitting six of 14 three-point shots in the second half to give VU 13 made triples in the game and shooting 42 percent from long range in the game.

Vincennes continued to pull away and closed out the game with a big 102-58 victory over Olney Central College.

"I thought we moved the ball pretty well," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "There were a lot of possessions in the game, we scored a bunch of points and only had six turnovers. I would have liked to see us be a little bit more intense about posting hard inside at times. Then there were times when we did and we scored. But I thought offensively we were fine."

"We've seen a lot of zone and we've seen a lot of everything, so at this point our comfort level against all of these things is just up to us," Franklin added. "Can we go out there, do what we are supposed to and be in a rhythm. We know how to try and dissect it and I think as you are seeing that, you are getting obviously better. You get a better rhythm. You get a better ability to not turn the ball over. You are able to move the ball better because you know where to move it. So I think the one thing that I would nitpick a little bit about is that I did not think that we posted as hard."

"I thought that we could score in there and you saw when Kenaz did, he scores easily," Franklin said. "Kenaz is honestly the most natural scorer we've had inside since Lony Francis, Jr. He's shooting like 78 percent. He scores. It's just about getting him to play with the intensity and the hunger of wanting to do that. Where Lony, you didn't have to worry about that. Lony wanted to do it. Kenaz has more bounce and more spring and more abilities, he can just go and get it. So it's going to be big. He didn't do anything in the first half, he wasn't ready. We tried to get him to post up and he was in the short corner. If you watch the second half, when he wanted to, you know why. There's nobody in our league that can stop him when he wants to get down and go to work. We've just got to find some way to break through that wall to get him to where he wants to do it all the time."

"Other than that we were pretty okay," Franklin added. "We are getting guys that are getting wide open shots in the corner and we've got a couple that haven't hit them. If we ever start doing that, which they can, we'll really roll up some things. When you get 102 like tonight and we don't press and trap and try to get that and we score over 100 against Lake Land on Saturday, as we start getting more intense about wanting it inside and we start having guys pop that wide open corner shot, we'll be awful hard to handle because we're getting those turnovers down under control. Getting that to six tonight was really good."

"Defensively, I can't really say a whole lot because for the most part we stopped everything but Bethea," Franklin said. "And it was just that he's going one on one with a rub screen every once in a while. We've got to sit down and cover better at that position. But he hit some step backs but we're going to get back and go to work on that these next couple of days to see if we can't get a little bit better at moving our feet there. Other than that, we stopped them. He had 34 and they had nobody else in double figures."

"I thought we got a little loose and gave them some offensive rebounds and didn't get after some loose balls during one stretch in the first half and gave them some points but for the most part we were okay there," Franklin added.

All 13 active VU players entered the game Wednesday night and all 13 Trailblazers scored against the Blue Knights.

VU was led offensively by a big night from sophomore Michael Cooper (Minneapolis, Minn.) who finished 24 points, 17 of which coming in the first half, to go along with eight rebounds and three assists.

Freshman Dayton Williams (Louisville, Ky.) got the VU offense going early with four first half threes on his way to 14 points, three rebounds and three blocks.

Sophomore Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) picked up the first double-double of his Trailblazer career Wednesday night, finishing the game with 12 points, a team-high 15 rebounds and six assists.

Freshman Kenaz Ochogwu (E. Providence, R.I.) was the fourth VU scorer in double figures, finishing his game with 10 points and three rebounds.

"I thought Lebron did a good job because he moved the ball," Franklin said. "He didn't try to force stuff. You get a guy like that, sometimes he thinks 'I'm not getting a bunch of points' and they start to force it. He's got himself locked in right now to where he's going to move it and we're going to get great shots and not turn it over and that's his job. So he's doing a good job there."

"I thought Michael Cooper had a really good night tonight," Franklin added. "I thought offensively Michael was really good, efficient, hit his shots from the right places. He got the ball and drove it sometimes, got on the offensive glass some. You look at his numbers, he had no turnovers, three assists, he only played about 24 minutes. I thought he was good. I thought he was really good on both ends. They didn't put a whole lot of pressure on him on the defensive end. He just had to make sure that he stayed up on Nash. We gave him the assignment of guarding a smaller guy who can really shoot it and stretch it out and for the most part he did a really good job with that."

"Bryan got on the glass some," Franklin said. "Him and Michael combined for 23 rebounds, 15 by Bryan and eight by Michael. But the best news out of that was that those two guys only had one turnover in basically 50 minutes combined play with nine assists. They have been a little turnover prone and that's been one of the problems. They haven't really been forced turnovers, they just turn the ball over. Tonight they only had one and tonight that's probably the difference of scoring over 100 or scoring in the high 80s."

"It was fine, we'll go back to work tomorrow," Franklin added. "There's a number of good things in here but there are things that I can go to work at and be a little unhappy about tomorrow at practice."

Sophomore and 2024 NJCAA All-American Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) moved the ball well all night for Vincennes, leading the Blazers with 10 assist to go along with six rebounds and five points.

The Trailblazers will look to keep this momentum going into the weekend as VU gets set to head to Mt. Carmel, Ill. Saturday, Jan. 25 where VU will square off against Wabash Valley College at 7 p.m. eastern.

This will be the first of three straight road games for the Trailblazers as VU will head to Centralia, Ill. Wednesday, Jan. 29 to face off against Kaskaskia College at 7 p.m. eastern and then head to Carterville, Ill. Saturday, Feb. 1 to take on John A. Logan College at 4 p.m. eastern.

"We just need to have Championship level intensity," Franklin said. "I don't know how to explain that to everybody. It's in every facet and in every deal. We know it now. It's about being at that and locking into that. It's about going back and watching tonight where we could have been and should have been better individually and saying 'yeah, I know why Coach says that now' or 'yeah, I didn't do that, but if I had I would have had a better chance of stopping them'. But just getting it tuned up for Saturday. Every day we are just trying to put together a Championship effort from here on out. That's all it is."

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (102): Bryan Akanmu 4-10 4-4 12, Michael Cooper 10-13 1-1 24, Kenaz Ochogwu 5-7 0-0 10, Lebron Thomas 2-5 0-0 5, Dayton Williams 4-7 2-2 14, Christian Andrews 3-8 0-0 7, Meyoh Swansey 3-5 0-0 8, Jalen Calloway 1-5 0-0 2, Taveon Smith 2-2 0-0 5, Travelle Bryson 2-4 0-0 5, Darstin Onye 1-2 0-0 2, Ali Sakho 2-3 1-2 5, Hussein Elmaraghy 1-3 1-2 3, Team 40-74 9-11 102.

Olney Central – 27   31 – 58

VU (16-3, 6-0) – 54   48 – 102

Three-point goals: VU 13 (Williams 4, Cooper 3, Swansey 2, Thomas, Andrews, Smith, Bryson). Rebounds: VU 55 (Akanmu 15). Assists: VU 33 (Thomas 10). Steals: VU 2 (Thomas, Calloway). Blocked Shots: VU 4 (Williams 3). Turnovers: VU 6. Personal Fouls: VU 14. Fouled Out: None.