Defense allows No. 5 Trailblazers to cruise to big Region 24 road win at Lincoln Trail

ROBINSON, Ill. – The Vincennes University men's basketball team jumped up three spots in this week's NJCAA Division I National rankings, getting back into the top-five at No. 5 this week.

VU's first test since getting back into the top five was a short road trip to Robinson, Ill. to face off against the Lincoln Trail College Statesmen.

The Trailblazers were able to hold the Statesmen offense a bay, allowing just 52 points as VU came away with the wire-to-wire 93-52 victory.

Vincennes got off to a bit of a slow start offensively before breaking the game open with a 14-2 first half scoring run.

The Blazers would grab complete control of the game later in the first half with the help of a massive 15-0 scoring run to take a 35-14 lead.

The lead would hold as the Blazers headed into the halftime locker room break with a 42-20 advantage over the host Statesmen.

Vincennes looked to add on to their big halftime lead in the second half, outscoring Lincoln Trail 27-8 to begin the final 20 minute period to increase the lead to 69-28.

Lincoln Trail would cut into the deficit and get the VU lead down to 30 before VU responded back with a 13-0 scoring run to put the game away at 87-44.

VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin emptied his bench, not only getting all 11 active players into Wednesday night's game, but every VU player who played Wednesday scored as VU cruised down the stretch to a big 93-52 victory over Lincoln Trail College.

"I just thought we played with more intensity, particularly defensively," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "We don't try to make it overly complicated. But we have some real set ideas about how we are supposed to go about what we are doing, particularly on that defensive end of the floor and tonight as the game went along, especially the last 10 minutes of the first half and start of the second half, I thought our defense was much more locked in. I thought some guys showed a 'I'm not just hoping we stop you, I'm bringing this to you' mentality and that's what I want to see. I think you can see the energy in the guys when they did it, it just changes."

"That's what makes it fun to play," Franklin added. "That's the message that I put across to these guys all the time. I want them to have fun playing. That's how you have fun playing and I thought tonight, we've still got a ways to go, you can see runs of that and you can see differences in players. Mike, early in the game, there was a little bit of doubt and a little bit of hope on his play. But then as it went along, he got locked in on the simple fundamentals that we do and he did them aggressively and you saw the difference in the level of his play and his enjoyment of play."

"I think we're seeing more of that," Franklin said. "I thought you saw more of that on both ends of the floor. Going to the glass like we meant to go get it. Some guys came in there and got some big offensive rebounds where they weren't going in there hoping that it comes to me, no we're going to go get it. I thought we saw some guys diving on the floor and doing some things that we've traditionally done and maybe haven't done quite as well this year. I thought I saw tonight some guys starting to take hold of those things and you see what it does. It feeds on itself. Guys start liking playing together and being out there. So that's why I thought we won and that's why we played well and I thought that's why most of the guys that played tonight played well. Because they gave themselves a chance to play well, not perfect, but well. The energy and intensity was right. The score didn't matter, it's just how did we play and I thought we took another step forward tonight and another step forward into becoming a team that might contend for some big things."

The Trailblazers were led by sophomore Ryan Oliver (Antioch, Tenn.) who ended with a team-high 16 points and six rebounds, 13 of his points coming in the first half.

Sophomore Kris King (Washington, D.C.) came off the bench to put together a very efficient 15 points on just eight shots, while also grabbing four rebounds and picking up three steals defensively.

Sophomore Michael Osei-Bonsu (Bolingbrook, Ill.) had a big second half, scoring nine of his 12 points in the final period, while also grabbing six rebounds and ending with a pair of blocks.

Freshman Damarien Yates (Somerville, Tenn.) scored in double figures as well, finishing his night with 12 points and six rebounds.

Freshman Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) ran the VU offense very well from the point guard position, just missing out on a double-double with 10 points and nine assists, the 24th time this season Thomas has scored in double figures.

Sophomores Kent King (Washington, D.C.) and Victor Lado (Louisville, Ky.) came off the bench to add seven points each, with King adding four rebounds and three assists, while Lado ended with three rebounds and a team-high three blocks.

"Ryan had Huttenlocker defensively tonight and he followed the gameplan and did it with intensity for the most part and he caused him a lot of trouble," Franklin said. "That's huge. You can say 'Ryan scored x amount of points', but how many points did he get for us because he didn't let Huttenlocker get anything going. Not only does that take points off of him but it changes the entire dynamic of their team. I thought he did a great job of that."

"I thought Lebron was better on the ball tonight than he has been," Franklin added. "He's getting better. He's got to take that on. We've been challenging him. He's still got a ways to go but I thought he did a good job and didn't let their point guard in there easily. He was staying on task most of the time and made it tough on him. When you do that, particularly with those lead guard spots, it creates panic. Then, if they do manage to get in there, then they have to fight so hard that you saw tonight we were able to come over and get some blocked shots. You're able to block shots when they have had to fight hard to get in there and they are not completely balanced, then the guy can read it off the play, move over and get a blocked shot and that guy is live and engaged."

"When both of those things are happening, those things happen and you saw them happen a lot tonight," Franklin said. "It's not coincidence why it happened. We were fighting like heck out front. So if they did get through us, they had to fight like heck to get there and they are off balance and you can read it as that guy coming over to help and block those shots and make those plays. All of those things tie together. You have to get them started at some point for them to really take hold and I thought we got it started tonight and you can see what happens."

"Then we got some breakaway plays and some easy buckets because of our defense generated tonight," Franklin added. "Not because we're gambling. We didn't gamble. It was because we were up there and solid and you get those opportunities when you're solid. They start to happen for you. I thought all of those things were really good but like I said, it's just another step. We're late season, we're trying to turn it on and come down this stretch run playing for everything and I think this last week and a half we're starting to try to make that turn. We've got to continue it and there's a lot better basketball still in us. I said that a week ago and you can see, there's better basketball coming out right now. We're giving ourselves a chance for that better basketball to come out and I think there's more in there. If we can get more out then we'll be hard to beat."

The Trailblazers will be on the road again this weekend when VU heads to Mt. Carmel, Ill. to face off against Wabash Valley College Saturday, March 2. Tip-off time for your Trailblazers is set for 7 p.m. eastern.

"We're already in tournament time," Franklin said. "We're in a different situation than everybody else and people in JuCo, you have to understand, we're already in it because there's only 24 teams that go. But you can also get that stuff qualified beforehand. That's our goal. Our goal is to be at Hutch and be ready to play when we get there. By whatever means, the District tournament is important, but we'll see how important. We want to get ourselves locked in to that 24 and we really want to get locked in to that 16 if you get one of the eight byes."

"So all of these games for us are playoff games," Franklin added. "We've got two more. If we can get those two more, we get to 27-3 and we're going to be top four or so in the country, especially when you pull out our resume because we're ranked five but if you look at our resume, especially when we add another D-I win tonight and have two more opportunities. With who we've played and what they say the committee is supposed to look at, we're going to look even better than five."

"We're trying to get to that Sweet Sixteen right now," Franklin said. "These are playoff games for us. Just like in Division I, if you make it to the Sweet Sixteen, you've had a good year. It's not about 'did you win your conference tournament'. If you're in the Sweet Sixteen and contending for a National Championship, if that's what you want to do, than this is what we have to do to get there. If we don't do that, then you have to win your District Tournament to bail yourself out. But right now we have an opportunity to get all that stuff done before that and keep playing and adding on."

"Not only to win the regular season title, which we are one game up right now with two to play" Franklin added. "As long as we don't lose, we win it. So that's on the table. But I never make any bones about it, our goal every year, as it should be if you were playing at Kentucky, Duke or Kansas, to say you had a good year, you have to at least be in that Sweet Sixteen and try to contend for National titles when you are there. That's what we are doing right now. That's exactly what we were doing tonight against Lincoln Trail. We're both trying to get ourselves ready to when we get there, we play our best ball and we're trying to get there. We are winning games that will get us there right now. We've got two more to get that will probably just about put us there. I don't know how we wouldn't be one of those teams with a bye if we win these next two games. I don't know how losing one in the postseason would knock us out of that. Then we'll be winning in the District Tournament to make sure we're a top four, three or two seed to improve your chances once you're there. But we're trying to get to the Sweet Sixteen so tournament play is on for us right now."

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (93): Damarien Yates 4-10 4-8 12, Ryan Oliver 5-9 4-6 16, Lebron Thomas 2-3 6-7 10, Michael Osei-Bonsu 5-10 2-4 12, Karyiek Dixon 2-4 0-0 4, Gerard Thomas 2-2 2-2 6, Mathieu Nader-Kalombo 1-1 0-0 3, Kris King 6-8 0-0 15, Kent King 3-7 0-0 7, Victor Lado 2-2 2-3 7, Vilhelm Bodingh 0-0 1-2 1, Team 32-56 21-32 93.

VU (25-3, 12-2) – 42    51 – 93

Lincoln Trail – 20   32 – 52

Three-point goals: VU 8 (Kr. King 3, Oliver 2, Nader-Kalombo, Ke. King, Lado). Rebounds: VU 41 (Dixon 7). Assists: VU 20 (L. Thomas 9). Steals: VU 8 (L. Thomas 3, Kr. King 3). Blocked Shots: VU 8 (Lado 3). Turnovers: VU 16. Personal Fouls: VU 12. Fouled out: None.