No. 8 Trailblazers notch 10th win in a row with home victory over Volunteer State

VINCENNES, Ind. – The No. 8-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers shook off the post-Thanksgiving food coma Saturday night by picking up a big 97-61 win over Volunteer State Community College.

The Trailblazers jumped out to a quick advantage, scoring the first seven points of the game.

Vincennes would later use a 14-2 scoring run to build a 37-22 lead before closing out the opening half of play heading into the locker room leading 47-31.

Vincennes looked to again grab control of the momentum out of the locker room, outscoring the Pioneers 22-8 to open the final 20 minutes of play to grow their lead to 30 points.

VU would trade baskets later in the half but were still able to add on to their lead as the Trailblazers closed out their 10th win of the season and 10th win in a row 97-61 over Volunteer State.

"Honestly this is probably the most disappointed I've been after one of our 10 games this year," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "I was just not pleased with the attention to detail, the intensity and the energy. I've been around this a long time and I told the team after the game, you need to watch the film, you better come in here Monday humble and ready to work. But usually when guys get into that mode they usually don't until they take a bad loss and I can see a bad loss coming for us very soon if there is not a great altering of the mindset of what I witnessed tonight."

"I've done this a long time and I'm not trying to be negative, that's just what I saw," Franklin added. "We are going to be off tomorrow, because I really don't want to see them tomorrow. Sunday is a day that we can have off and they are not hearing me as clearly as they need to. So, I told them to go home, watch the film and we'll come back on Monday and we better have two of the greatest practices of all time to get ourselves back to where we need to be. That's what I believe. That will be the message and what I will try to do. But I was disappointed. I just didn't think tonight was very good."

"I was really not happy on the defensive end," Franklin said. "I thought we stood back, cushioned-up and didn't want to really get out and guard these guys, work and dictate terms. They played the way I tell them not to play and when that happens and it happens consistently, then we are probably going to get smacked around here shortly. But hopefully not if we want to actually get in here and do the work. But if we play like we did tonight and work like we did tonight then we probably deserve to get smacked around."

"That's really how I felt about it," Franklin added. "Whether we win or lose is not really a big barometer for me. It's how we go about it. How we compete and how we work. We had a hard time tonight of getting people to communicate who they were guarding when they were getting subbed in and out. Transition defense, I was the only guy telling, while we've got guys running free at the other end. That can't happen. We are 10 games in now. That can't happen. It's a short amount of time, but it's still 10 games and those things have to get cleaned up or you are going to get whipped."

The Trailblazers were led all night offensively by a dominant inside presence by freshman Michael Osei-Bonsu (Bolingbrook, Ill.) who finished his night with 25 points, eight rebounds and a team-high two steals and two blocks.

Sophomore Caleb Johnson (N. Preston, Nova Scotia) continues to be a consistent scorer for VU, ending with 18 points, six rebounds and a team-high five assists.

Sophomore Shilo Jackson (Indianapolis, Ind.) closed out a double-double Saturday night with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

Sophomore Tasos Cook (Columbus, Ohio) was the fourth VU scorer in double-figures, ending with 10 points, five rebounds and three assists.

Freshman James Locke IV (Spencer, Okla.) came off the bench to hit three first-half three pointers on his way to nine points and sophomore Trenton Johnson (South Bend, Ind.) came off the bench to add eight points and six rebounds.

"I thought we got a pretty decent effort from Caleb," Franklin said. "Caleb has been the one guy who you would say through 10 games has been pretty good. Every game it has been Caleb who, knock on wood, hasn't thrown in a bad game. I've got to get Caleb to turn up his energy level defensively and get him a little sharper and snappier. But he gets a lot of things done that are positive and he did again tonight."

"Michael got things done down low, which he can do," Franklin added. "We just have to have some others to do it too. Right now, it's kind of just Michael in terms of actually sealing somebody and scoring over somebody and not just getting a dunk. I thought those two guys got some things done when they were on the floor."

"James Locke hit some shots in the first half," Franklin said. "He couldn't repeat it in the second half. He's got to be able to put it together to where it's something you can trust. But he did it in the first half when we needed a guy to hit a few open shots when guys weren't making shots. What that suggests to me is that we need to be in the gym a little longer. Because it can't be more wide open and guys that are supposed to be able to hit shots aren't making them. You have to get into the gym because for us to sit there and miss those kinds of shots consistently, we are going to have a hard time beating good teams."

The Trailblazers will return to Region 24 play next week when VU hosts the Trailblazers of Lewis & Clark Community College Wednesday, Nov. 30. Tip-off time is set for 7 p.m. eastern.

"We are just looking to get sharp," Franklin said about the leadup to their next game. "Being committed to what I tell them they way that I tell them to do it and really locking in to getting it done and getting it done right. There was just a lot of sloppy out there tonight and we are going to have to get that corrected. If you go watch the film, you are going to see it."

"I told the guys to go home and watch the film," Franklin added. "See how sloppy and see how many times were you actually guarding the guy the way we tell you to guard them. It wasn't even did you win or lose the battle, did you engage in the battle the way we tell you to. Go back and watch it. The film isn't going to lie."

"Then I want Monday and Tuesday to be about doing everything we can in the world and do it like we are supposed to as sharp as we can possibly get it," Franklin said. "It's everything. Passing, catching, being prepared to shoot, how we defend, how we ran the floor, how we communicate with each other, how we talked to each other about who's got who. Whether somebody is back, communicating on defense, putting a body on a body. I don't think we boxed a soul out. We just walked to the rim and let some balls bounce over our head. It doesn't show up tonight, but if you watch it and you watch the film, you will see it. You will see that we weren't doing the fundamentals that we teach."

"People will say, 'well, you won big', I've been down this road and I'm telling you, that's the precursor to sitting over there while somebody is whipping you and having a good time at your expense," Franklin added. "And you are going to say that shouldn't have happened, well it did and there's reasons that it happened. Those reasons were on display tonight if you've been down this road like I have. I know what they look like. We'll see. We'll have to have two really good days of practice because I think we took a step backwards and now they are going to have to dig out of that hole and you are going to have to have guys that are really going to want to do that and if they are not hearing me until they get beat, then that's what is going to happen pretty soon."

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (97): Caleb Johnson 8-11 0-0 18, Michael Osei-Bonsu 12-15 1-4 25, Shilo Jackson 4-6 2-4 10, Tasos Cook 4-9 0-0 10, Kale Gaither 2-9 0-0 4, Trenton Johnson 3-7 0-0 8, James Locke IV 3-7 0-0 9, Devawn White 2-5 0-0 4, Kris King 3-8 0-0 7, Ryan Oliver 0-1 0-0 0, Kent King 0-4 0-0 0, Karyiek Dixon 1-1 0-0 2, Team 42-83 3-8 97.

Volunteer State – 31   30 – 61

VU (10-0, 1-0) – 47   50 – 97

Three-point goals: VU 10 (Locke IV 3, C. Johnson 2, Cook 2, T. Johnson 2, Kr. King). Rebounds: VU 57 (Jackson 10). Assists: VU 23 (C. Johnson 5). Steals: VU 3 (Osei-Bonsu 2). Blocked shots: VU 3 (Osei-Bonsu 2). Turnovers: VU 8. Personal Fouls: VU 18. Fouled out: None.