Trailblazers close out first week of the season with wire-to-wire win over Columbia State

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Trailblazer men's basketball team picked up their third win of the season Saturday night leading the entire way over Columbia State Community College 76-51 in the final game of the Kiwanis Classic.

The Trailblazers wasted little time grabbing the early momentum Saturday night, jumping out to a quick 16-8 lead.

Vincennes would extend their lead to 12 before Columbia State hit a late free throw to head into the locker room trailing 36-25.

VU took complete control of the game in the second half, using a 16-3 scoring run to jump out to a 21-point lead.

Vincennes would continue to add to their lead throughout the game as VU closed out their third win in five days with a 76-51 win over Columbia State.

"I thought this was a nice win," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "I thought the win Tuesday night against Kankakee was a nice win. We've got three Division I wins this week. There are not a whole lot of teams in the country that have more than that."

"We were tested in a lot of ways tonight that our team had not seen," Franklin added. "Columbia State was big, strong and physical. The press you defensively, they force you to make shots, they break you down. They are really physical on the glass. They may be as good of a rebounding team as we will face this year. The rebounds were even tonight, which we never want to be even rebounding the ball, so that was a battle of strength and strength."

"I'm proud of our guys," Franklin said. "I thought we had a good week. There are a lot of things that we have to get better, but I think if you watch this team, you can see where it looks a lot like the nine years before last year here. It looks like the last 23 or 24 years before last year that I've had as a coach. I see the progression, it's just whether they keep their eye on the prize or not. Which so far it looks like they are and hopefully they will. If they do then this team has tremendous potential because we're new. We are still learning. They are learning every little thing right now. We've got a long way to go to get as good as this team could be. If this team can get near as good as they could be, I think we can contend with anybody."

VU was led offensively by a big outside shooting night by freshman Kris King (Washington, D.C.). King would hit six out of seven three-point shots on his way to a team-high 18 points. King also played a big role defensively for the Blazers, finishing with three steals on the night.

Sophomore Tasos Cook (Columbus, Ohio) picked up where he left off last night, scoring 10 of his 17 points in the first half, while also matching King's three steals defensively.

Sophomore Caleb Johnson (N. Preston, Nova Scotia) was the third VU scorer to reach double figures, ending the night with10 points and four rebounds.

Sophomore Shilo Jackson (Indianapolis, Ind.) and freshman Kent King (Washington, D.C.) rounded out the VU starting lineup Saturday night, with Jackson ending with eight points, six rebounds and three blocks, with King finishing with six points, six rebounds and four assists.

Freshmen James Locke IV (Spencer, Okla.) and Kale Gaither (Madisonville, Ky.) did the bulk of the scoring off the bench for Vincennes Saturday, with Locke adding eight points and three assists, while Gaither finished with seven points, a team-high five assists and three rebounds.

"The biggest thing for Kris, he hit shots and that's great, but he had his first real test playing as a stretch four," Franklin said. "Is he going to be able to guard when the other team puts a big bull at the four and they really look for him? For me, as coach, that was the biggest and best thing about tonight from Kris. He did not let their guy get any kind of rhythm and I think that was key. If he can do that consistently, then we flip to where we have the advantage offensively against them. That was the game within the game for me tonight. I was really proud of him."

"I thought our toughness defensively was really good tonight for this stage of the year," Franklin added. "We were battling big guys, lots of screens, lots of actions and constant physicality and I thought our guys, for the first week of the season, new guys, not even calling on something from last year that you know, I thought they did very well. We've got to do better as we go along, but so does everybody right now in this race. I don't think we are that far behind right now in the start of this race and I think we've got a lot of things that we can do to get better."

"I thought Kale showed more and more toughness tonight," Franklin said. "There are moments as a freshman that are going to happen with him. But if he can progress there and keep his nose to the grindstone as we go then I think him and Tasos are going to be good players. Tasos has given us some real leadership and you can see his game growing. That's a key position and a position that we didn't have any experience in coming back this year. That has enabled us to be able to get off to this kind of start. Because you can have a good team, but if your point guard play isn't solid enough, it makes everything else fall apart. Tasos and Kale stepping up like they have so far has been huge and allowed our team to show their ability. I think that has been the story of the first week of the season for me. We have gotten really good play out of the point guard position and we've gotten really good leadership out of Tasos and that has enabled all of these other players to play up to the level that they can. That has been an exciting thing for me to see and hopefully it continues."

The Trailblazers will look to continue their winning ways into the second week of the season as VU gets set to host Indiana Elite Prep at the Physical Education Complex Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 7 p.m. eastern.

Vincennes will then look ahead to next weekend when VU hosts the McDonald's Classic Friday, Nov. 11 and Saturday, Nov. 12 featuring John A. Logan College, Macomb Community College and Northeast Mississippi Community College.

The Trailblazers will take on Macomb Friday at 7 p.m. and Northeast Mississippi Saturday at 7 p.m. John A. Logan will face Northeast Mississippi Friday at 5 p.m. and Macomb at 7 p.m. Saturday, all times are eastern.

"We know very little about Indiana Elite Prep at the moment," Franklin said. "We've done nothing scouting wise on them. I've been worried about my team and of course what we were doing this weekend. This time of the year we are much more worried about our own prep. They played Olney Central tonight and they play Wabash Valley tomorrow afternoon, so we will be able to get a little bit of a scout from that, but we are just worried about us."

"We are going to give the guys tomorrow off," Franklin added. "It's the first time we've had a day off in a little bit because of how our schedule has fallen. We are then going to get back in the weight room at 7 a.m. on Monday and get back to our normal schedule life and go to work. We are going to approach Tuesday night the same way we do Saturday night against Northeast Mississippi. It's about us playing our best possible game and learning while we do it. Hopefully we get the chance to get a lot of bodies into the game Tuesday, but everybody has to play well and sharpe, it's never garbage time for us."

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (76): Kris King – 6-8 0-0 18, Caleb Johnson – 2-8 4-4 10, Shilo Jackson 4-4 0-2 8, Tasos Cook 6-8 4-5 17, Kent King 3-7 0-1 6, Trenton Johnson 0-0 0-0 0, James Locke IV 3-5 0-0 8, Kale Gaither 3-6 0-0 7, Ryan Oliver 0-0 0-0 0, Michael Osei-Bonsu 0-2 0-0 0, Victor Lado 0-1 0-0 0, Dende Ceder 1-1 0-0 2, Karyiek Dixon 0-0 0-0 0, Team 28-50 8-12 76.

Columbia State – 25   26 – 51

VU (3-0) – 36   40 – 76

Three-point goals: VU 12 (Kr. King 6, C. Johnson 2, Locke IV 2, Cook, Gaither). Rebounds: VU 26 (Jackson 6, Ke. King 6). Assists: VU 17 (Gaither 5). Steals: VU 7 (Kr. King 3, Cook 3). Blocked Shots: VU 4 (Jackson 3). Turnovers: VU 10. Personal Fouls: VU 20. Fouled out: None.