No. 9 Trailblazers fall in defensive Region 24 road showdown

BELLEVILLE, Ill. – The No. 9 Vincennes University Trailblazers fell for the second time this season on the road in a Region 24 showdown, this time to Southwestern Illinois in Belleville Monday night 59-50.

The Trailblazers got going early against the host Blue Storm, opening a 17-8 lead to begin the game.

SWIC would respond on their home floor to cut the VU lead down to one late in the first half, before the Blazers closed out the first half of play scoring five of the final six points to take a 31-26 lead into the halftime break.

Vincennes came out of the locker room strong to start the second half, matching their largest lead of the first half by taking a 43-34 lead midway through the second half.

The Blue Storm slowly chipped away at the Vincennes lead before evening the score at 47-47 with four minutes to play and taking their first lead since early in the first half at the 3:40 mark.

Southwestern Illinois grabbed complete control of the game after taking the lead, closing out the game at the free throw line and scoring the final seven points of the game to come away with the 59-50 win over the Trailblazers.

"I just couldn't find a guy," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "At the end of the day, I just couldn't find a guy to go to. I thought we ran some things and found some shots, but it's on me, I couldn't find the right equation to free ourselves up to score tonight. At the end of the game, I still don't have a good answer for that."

"The bottom line is, you can't score 19 points," Franklin added. "That's what it is. We did not put the ball in the basket at any point and even when we were getting the lead, we were struggling to put the ball in the basket. Guys that we usually can depend on, it just wasn't there. Somebody might say it was just one of those nights. That's one of those lines that guys will give. I'm more of a guy that wants to have control and if I'm a player I want to have control. I don't want to think that there is some kind of luck thing that goes on. So, for me, nights like tonight are very difficult. I struggle with nights like tonight."

Vincennes was led offensively by sophomore Shilo Jackson (Indianapolis, Ind.) who controlled the paint on both ends of the floor to finish with a 14-point, 12-rebound double-double. His fifth double-double of the season and 20th of his VU career.

Jackson also led the Blazers with three blocks and a pair of steals defensively.

Sophomore Caleb Johnson (N. Preston, Nova Scotia) got the VU scoring going early and finished with 10 points, seven of which coming in the first half, while also snagging five rebounds.

Freshman Ryan Oliver (Antioch, Tenn.) also finished the game with 10 points and five rebounds, his third time scoring in double-figures this season.

"I thought Shilo played pretty well," Franklin said. "But he's not physically the strongest guy and they were able to collapse on him very quickly because they didn't have any fear of us hitting a shot from outside. We've been hitting shots from outside, we've been hitting shots in games, we've been hitting shots in practice and we could get those shots tonight, just none of that was going to go in tonight."

"I don't know how many shots we had where we really came close to making it," Franklin added. "We not only missed them. I don't think we really even came close. That's hard for me. I don't know how to explain that. As a competitor and a guy that has won a lot in my life and I've been around a lot of guys who have won a lot, it's tough. But that's what happens. We got enough stops, they got fouled a couple of times and even there was some lack of discipline, then finally Franklin hit a couple of shots for SWIC. Eventually when he does that and you don't score, it will be enough."

"Credit to SWIC," Franklin said. "They played hard. We knew they would. But Shilo got 14. It's hard for him to get much more than that because he's not strong enough and if they can get onto him immediately like that, he needs some people to hit some shots outside. We didn't get anything going from Michael on the low block. Kris struggled, we got him isolated down in the post and they left him one-on-one on the block to score and he just couldn't quite get a finish. Caleb was in another stratosphere tonight. For as good as he has been this season, it just wasn't there tonight. I couldn't get him to run the actions right that we do all the time. That started from the very first possession and never stopped."

"We got a few transitions in the first half, got a dunk, got a few plays and maybe it would continue but it didn't," Franklin added. "I've got to find a way. I don't know what that is. The isolation plays didn't work. Cross screens, action swings, anything, they were going to collapse and press up on the guy with the ball and play physical and plug up the post. The thing that we could really get open was when we screened and rescreened up top. Our point guards got wide open but we don't make shots. When we get that, we should have been able to score, then they would have had to jump out and do something different. But that wasn't going to happen. I just couldn't find it tonight. That's on me. I could not find the answer and if we had to go play five more minutes right now, I don't know where I would go to get points."

The Trailblazers will look to quickly bounce back when Vincennes hosts Wabash Valley College Wednesday, Jan. 18 at the Physical Education Complex. VU will tip-off against the Warriors at 7 p.m. eastern.

"I thought we did what we needed to do in practice leading into tonight," Franklin said. "I thought the opportunities were there tonight. I think this is just one of those things where the players have to do some soul searching. I'm going to try to figure out everything that I can. I'll do everything I can to figure out how to get them perform better offensively. I will and maybe I'll fail, but I will try."

"I think a little soul searching is needed," Franklin added. "Because you have to ask yourself the question of why could I just not function tonight. Because if you could function, then the game was there. Victory was within your hands. But past that, I think that is the biggest thing. We are not going to come up with something new. What we had was working just fine as of last Wednesday. There wasn't anything that we were presented with tonight that was something new. It's just are we going to be able to handle the lights."

"We've had two significant games on the road this season that we didn't handle the lights," Franklin said. "We've won three pretty good road games in the Region and we've had two times where I don't think we stepped up and performed. I think that's just one of those things where our guys have to decide if that's who they want to be. I'll try, but at some point, they have to tell me in these situations who am I going to lean on. That's what it comes down to. Honestly, tonight, I didn't know."

"I thought Shilo was trying but he couldn't because they were going to collapse on him," Franklin added. "He got his number and protected the rim pretty well. But after that, where were we going to go. Where were we going to go, even if we got them an open shot that you thought was going in and there were times tonight where we did get open shots. It's just one of those things. I don't think we can work on it more in practice, I think tonight was more mental. But you are going to be in big pressure situations and you have to learn how to handle it. I think that is going to be a big moment for us right now. We've got to take it all out and win all of them. There is going to be pressure and if you are going to be a champion there is going to be pressure moments and pressure situations. We are going to have to be able to stroke that ball through the net or go up strong through contact to put it in the hole and make that play when the time comes. I'll do what I can. It's always on me. It was on me tonight. I should have found some way, somehow, to get us to where we could put two or three buckets together because that's about all it would have taken at one point to get over the hill. But I failed to do that."

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (50): Tasos Cook 0-4 2-4 2, Ryan Oliver 3-9 3-3 10, Caleb Johnson 2-9 5-6 10, Michael Osei-Bonsu 2-4 0-0 4, Shilo Jackson 7-8 0-1 14, Trenton Johnson 0-1 0-0 0, Devawn White 1-2 1-2 3, Kale Gaither 0-6 1-3 1, Kris King 2-6 0-0 4, Kent King 1-5 0-2 2, Team 18-54 12-21 50.

VU (18-2, 6-2) – 31   19 – 50

Southwestern Illinois – 26   33 – 59

Three-point goals: VU 2 (Oliver, C. Johnson). Rebounds: VU 40 (Jackson 12). Assists: VU 14 (Cook 5). Steals: VU 8 (C. Johnson 2, Jackson 2). Blocked Shots: VU 7 (Jackson 3). Turnovers: VU 15. Personal Fouls: VU 29. Fouled out: C. Johnson.