Trailblazers fall to Lincoln Trail in overtime thriller

VINCENNES, Ind. – The opening day of Region 24 play brought plenty of excitement to the Physical Education Complex Wednesday night as the VU Trailblazers hosted Lincoln Trail College.

Vincennes jumped out to an early lead and rode the momentum to an 18-point halftime lead, before the Statesmen rallied back to erase the deficit and take a lead late in the second half.

VU freshman Grant Brown (Fairmount, Ind.) hit a three-point basket with two seconds remaining on the clock to force overtime, before Lincoln Trail hit a buzzer-beater of their own with 0.8 seconds left in the overtime period to come away with the 65-64 win.

The Trailblazers got their offense rolling early against Lincoln Trail, hitting 50-percent of their shots in the opening half, including hitting seven shots from behind the arc.

Freshman Shilo Jackson (Indianapolis, Ind.) led the way early for the Blazers as he nearly had a double-double at the break with 10 points and eight rebounds on the opening period as the Trailblazers built an 18-point halftime lead at 35-17.

Lincoln Trail made a switch defensively to begin the second half and began to use a full court press that continues to cause the Trailblazers issues offensively.

The Statesmen used an extended 32-7 run to begin the second half to march all the way back and take the lead over Vincennes with just under 10 minutes to play.

Lincoln Trail would gain their largest lead of the game at 53-44 before Vincennes responded with an 8-2 scoring run to cut the deficit to three points.

Vincennes managed to force overtime after back-to-back three-pointers from freshmen Thow James Biel (Calgary, Alberta) and Grant Brown evened the score at 58-all.

In the overtime period the two teams traded baskets with James Biel hitting a mid-range shot with 27 seconds to play giving the Trailblazers a one-point lead.

Lincoln Trail ran down the court and held the ball for the final shot before the Statesmen found room under the basket to hit a layup with 0.8 second left on the clock.

The ensuing half-court heave by Vincennes was off target and the Statesmen came away with the 65-64 win over the Trailblazers.

"I thought, in the first half, we executed well," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "It wasn't anything that we didn't think we could do. I thought it looked like we had developed a little bit and at halftime I told them Lincoln Trail was going to pressure us. We've worked against pressure, we know what we're supposed to do against pressure, but there is a time when a guy pressures you, we have to be able to hurt him. We just have not shown the ability to do that."

"We know where the holes are in the pressure but we have continued to throw gasoline onto any spark our opponent has," Franklin added. "Obviously I haven't done a good enough job of getting us ready but we've tried to cover those things like we have in the past. At some point you have to be strong and execute the play and I thought we had ample opportunities for that, we just couldn't function enough to get it there and when we did we weren't able to punish them. Defensively I thought we opened up our gate and started letting them drive to the basket."

"Then when we got down to the five-minute mark and we were down, now our guys decided they were going to play and we didn't have much of a problem breaking the pressure. I thought we showed some heart to get us back. The overtime was just back-and-forth. Credit Lincoln Trail, they hit one big three, but the other two buckets we let them drive right to the lane. Offensively I thought we were okay. We got good possessions and I thought we executed well, made the last play to get the lead, we just needed a stop."

"It just comes down to a play. This game had 45 minutes in it and if we just tried to play during that 15 minute stretch, then this wouldn't have come down to a play. We feel awful when it's over, I thought we played really well for 20 minutes and it was things that we have been working on and I don't think they could have beaten us had we not freaked out against the pressure. The problem is, we freak out. I wish there was something x's and o's that would fix it, but we've seen pressure at every level, Final Fours, National Championship games, Elite Eights, we're not seeing anything that is new but I've got to find some way to cause us not to freak out under pressure. I don't know what that is, but I'll keep trying."

"We've got so many holes to fix and I thought we fixed a good number of them and were really playing decent basketball for a stretch of the game, including the last five minutes of the second half. I didn't think we played bad in overtime, we just didn't stop the ball on two possessions. We're not the most skilled team in the world, so when we freak out, we've got a problem. We can't afford to freak out, it's the worst possible thing that we can do and that's what we did tonight."

Shilo Jackson recorded his sixth double-double of the season as he led the Trailblazers with 17 points and 13 rebounds on the night.

Thow James Biel ended his day with 14 points, while also adding three rebounds and a pair of blocks.

Grant Brown came off the bench to reach double-figures for the first time in his college career, ending his day with 11 points and six rebounds.

Brevin Jefferson (Indianapolis, Ind.) returned to the floor after missing the last three games to be the fourth VU scorer in double-figures, ending with 10 points and a team-high eight assists.

Freshman Darrius Davis (Pittsburgh, Pa.) nearly completed a double-double of his own, finishing with nine points and eight rebounds on the night.

"I thought Shilo was tremendous in the first half," Franklin said. "He was dominating down in the paint. He didn't get a tone of touches or shots but he was dominating in what he was doing. Now, when they pressure us it takes him out a little bit because we don't get down and attack where he should be able to make some plays on the back end when we break it, like most of our bigs have throughout the years. But he can't make plays in the press because we're not attacking it the way that we have in the past."

"We don't attack well with the wings. Their ball-handling has got to be better to be at a college level and when they are the ones breaking the press we should be able to attack and make them pay and we're just not," Franklin added. "We've got to get better. Our skills have to get better or it's going to be a long year."

The Trailblazers will hit the road this weekend as Vincennes travels to Belleville, Ill. to take on Region 24 opponent Southwestern Illinois College, Saturday, Dec. 4. Tip-off time Saturday is scheduled for 4 p.m. eastern.

"We have so many things to work on, we've got to work on handling pressure obviously, but we've got so many things to work on with this young team," Franklin said. "Southwestern is going to pressure us and change defenses because that's what Coach Harrington does. We're going to go in and get to work as coaches and do what we can, but our guys have to improve their skills and improve on their ability to mentally handle the pressure because when that other team brings it, we have to be able to respond."

"It's very frustrating on my end dealing with it because I don't know what else to say or do, we're telling them where to look and where to go, but there is a point of strength and toughness and being able to see down court and executing the play. We've been working on that, but we'll keep working on it because guys are going to have to be able to do it. It's tough if you want to have success and we're going to see how tough we are right now."

"There was improvement across the board tonight. We just have such a glairing problem that takes a little bit of skill but it's mostly mental and we've got to find some guys that can handle that. We're going to help them so they know what to do, but they have to be able to read and react. There are a number of things that were good tonight, but they all get overrun because our two keys that we've been better at than most people for a long time and we're not now, protecting the ball and stopping the ball. There's a third part of getting the ball, which we're fair at, we're not great but we're fair. Sometimes we're not bad at stopping the ball, but protecting the ball is a different story. We turned it over five times in the first half and we were up 18 points. We had 16 turnovers after halftime and most of those were in the first 15 minutes of the second half. That's where it was, we weren't protecting the ball and we didn't stop the ball. Part of it is just gritting your teeth and getting tougher with the ball and we'll see if we can get there."

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (64): Thow James Biel 6-10 0-0 14, Shilo Jackson 4-5 9-10 17, Trenton Johnson 1-3 0-0 3, Brevin Jefferson 4-10 0-0 10, Darrius Davis 3-8 1-2 9, Ketaan Wyatt 0-2 0-0 0, Devawn White 0-4 0-0 0, Grant Brown 3-9 2-2 11, Deatrick Pashell 0-0 0-0 0, Team 21-51 12-14 64.

Lincoln Trail – 17  41  7 – 65

VU (3-8, 0-1) – 35  23  6 – 64

Three-point goals: VU 10 (Brown 3, James Biel 2, Jefferson 2, Davis 2, Johnson). Rebounds: VU 37 (Jackson 13). Assists: VU 15 (Jefferson 8). Steals: VU 1 (Jackson). Blocked Shots: VU 3 (James Biel 2). Turnovers: VU 21. Personal Fouls: VU 16. Fouled out: None.