Trailblazers use second half scoring run to pick up win on home opener

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Trailblazer men's basketball team opened their 2022-23 campaign Tuesday night and picked up a 79-68 win over Kankakee Community College.

The Trailblazers battled the Cavaliers all night and trailed by five points early in the second half before racing back to grab the lead for good with a 17-3 scoring run.

Vincennes got off to a slow start in front of the home crowd and found themselves in a battle in the opening half of the season.

The lead changed hands eight times in the first 20 minutes of play and the Trailblazers overcame 11 first half turnovers to hold a 39-37 lead at the break.

Kankakee opened the second half strong and quickly took the lead back from the host Blazers and built a 51-46 advantage.

Coming out of a timeout Vincennes looked to take their game to another level with an immediate 9-0 scoring run as part of a larger 17-3 run to put the Trailblazers ahead 63-54.

Vincennes would hold on to this lead and grow their advantage to as many as 16 before the Cavaliers attempted a late comeback with a 5-0 run.

The late scoring run was too little too late for Kankakee as Vincennes came away with the season-opening win 79-68 at the P.E. Complex.

"I think this is a good win," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "We are way away from where we want to be, but I think this is a good starting point. I think Kankakee is a good team. I thought they played well. I thought they played hard. I think Kankakee will be a team that will win around 20 games. They won 19 last year and I bet they will go over 20 this year and they are going to be a problem for some people."

"We had to up our game as it went along to get away from them," Franklin added. "We started to stop their straight-line penetration. That was big. We were letting their guard go to his right hand, which is an early season thing that we can't have. In the second half when he couldn't do that, we made it hard. Not only did we stop them, but we turned some of those stops into easier buckets for us. Our defense started turning into some offense and that was why."

"Kankakee stayed in the game because we had too many turnovers," Franklin said. "Our turnovers weren't because of something Kankakee was doing to us. No disrespect to Kankakee, most of our turnovers were because we need to get sharper. We are a young team early in the season and some of the things I told them were going to happen did tonight. These guys aren't going to be able to make those shoulder-level passes at this level."

"The turnover spread at 19 to 11, if we clean that up to close to being even, we might have been looking at a 20-point win," Franklin added. "I think Kankakee played really well. They stretch you all over the floor because everybody can hit shots. You have to guard everybody out to 25 feet. So, it was a good game for us, no question. It's a good start. We'll see what we learn from it going into this weekend when we 've got two more D-I opponents. I liked our energy and I think that eventually this team will be a really good ball club. It took a pretty good team to beat Kankakee tonight. That's our starting point, you can see where we are at, we are good enough to beat pretty good teams. I don't know if we are good enough to beat Hutch-level teams right now, but I think we can get there."

VU was led offensively by a big night from sophomore Shilo Jackson (Indianapolis, Ind.) who picked up right where he left off last season with 17 points, seven rebounds and five blocks.

Sophomore guard Tasos Cook (Columbus, Ohio) played well in his Trailblazer debut to finish with 11 points and five assists.

Sophomore Caleb Johnson (N. Preston, Nova Scotia) came off the bench to reach double-figures, ending with 11 points and three blocks.

Freshmen Kris King (Washington, D.C.) and Michael Osei-Bonsu (Bolingbrook, Ill.) had big nights on the glass for VU, with King leading the Blazers with 11 boards and seven points and Osei-Bonsu ending with 10 rebounds, six coming on the offensive glass.

Freshman Kale Gaither (Madisonville, Ky.) came off the bench to put together a very solid performance of eight points and a team-high six assists.

"I thought everybody did about what they could tonight," Franklin said. "The first night jitters goes around. There were some good things and some bad things. I think that Michael was a little tight early and missed some shots around the basket. But in the second half you saw the touches he had and the last one he put in on a jump hook. He sealed down on the block and made a decisive play. Now we grow from there."

"Ryan Oliver went through some of the first-game freshmen stuff, which you are going to do," Franklin added. "But as the game went along, the unit that really put it to them was when we had the two King twins on the floor with Caleb Johnson. I thought Caleb Johnson had a nice night. He very quietly had a nice night. When he was on the floor, we were probably better tonight."

"Those three are all six-five athletic guys that can do a lot of different things and can cause some problems," Franklin said. "Tasos got a little more solid during that stretch and about half the time we had either Shilo or Michael out there and I think that both guys did a good job of being the guy that finishes at the back end. That group, when they locked down defensively, it started to cause them problems and that group is going to cause people problems if they are solid. They caused Kankakee problems tonight, turned our defense into offense and that was essentially the game."

The Trailblazers will look to keep the winning ways going this weekend when VU hosts the annual Kiwanis Classic Friday, Nov. 4 and Saturday, Nov. 5 at the P.E. Complex.

The weekend classic will tip-off at 5 p.m. eastern Friday with Columbia State Community College taking on Shawnee Community College before Vincennes hosts Malcolm X Community College at 7 p.m. eastern.

Vincennes will close out the first week of games Saturday by facing Columbia State at 7 p.m. eastern after Shawnee squares off against Malcolm X at 5 p.m. eastern.

"The big thing that we talked about after the game was to go home and think about all of the stupid stuff that Coach said all throughout the preseason that you got tired of hearing," Franklin said. "Think about where were our mistakes tonight and when we were positive. Then go watch the film of tonight. You've felt it now. You've seen it. Now you'll realize why I think all of those silly things are important."

"If we can embrace that, then we grow," Franklin added. "Now will we make the adjustments to clean up some of those things and as we do, they will get more comfortable. We're as new as you could be. That's who we are but I think we are going to be a quality team, that's what I took from tonight. It's a quality bunch, but a new bunch. They are going to have to play with effort and energy to overcome their newness for a while to win while we learn because our schedule is filled with quality teams."

"We don't have five JV games that we are going to play," Franklin said. "That's not what we do. So, if we don't play well, we lose. If we don't play well tonight, Kankakee could have beaten us. Kankakee put an effort on the board that is going to beat a lot of teams. But once you've been through that, all of those experiences you gain if you are genuinely trying to get better, they start adding up. That's what we want to see, as fast as possible. But I think tonight was about as good as we could expect. Especially facing Kankakee at the level they played tonight. I thought tonight was a good night for us."

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (79): Michael Osei-Bonsu – 2-5 0-2 4, Shilo Jackson – 7-8 3-3 17, Tasos Cook – 4-6 2-2 11, James Locke IV – 1-6 2-2 5, Ryan Oliver – 2-5 1-1 5, Trenton Johnson – 0-1 0-0 0, Kale Gaither – 4-10 0-1 8, Kris King – 3-7 1-2 7, Kent King – 3-7 0- 7, Caleb Johnson – 4-5 1-2 11, Karyiek Dixon – 0-1 4-4 4, Team 30-61 14-19 79.

Kankakee – 37   31 – 68

VU (1-0) – 39   40 – 79

Three-point goals: VU 5 (C. Johnson 2, Cook, Locke IV, Ke. King). Rebounds: VU 45 (Kr. King 11). Assists: VU 23 (Gaither 6). Steals: VU 4 (Cook, Gaither, Kr. King, Ke. King). Blocked Shots: VU 8 (Jackson 5). Turnovers: VU 19. Personal Fouls: VU 18. Fouled out: None. Technical Fouls: VU: Franklin (1 – 4:28).