No. 22 Lady Trailblazers use team effort in win over Kaskaskia

VINCENNES, Ind. – The No. 22-ranked Vincennes Lady Trailblazers had six players reach double-figures in the score column in VU's 89-77 win over Kaskaskia College Wednesday night.

Vincennes got off to a rough start in the first quarter as KCC was able to find open shooters on the perimeter. Trailblazer freshman Noni Russell hit a buzzer-beating three to cut the Blue Angel lead to just seven points after the first 10 minutes.

VU rode that momentum into the second quarter as the Trailblazers came storming back to take their first lead of the game with four minutes to play before halftime.

Once Vincennes took the lead, they never looked back, building the advantage to 10 points at the break, leading 45-35 heading into the locker room.

Kaskaskia would battle in the second half but were never able to completely eliminate the VU lead.

The Lady Trailblazers came through to pick up their sixth win of the season over Kaskaskia and win number 697 for VU Hall of Fame head coach Harry Meeks.

"We got our press going in the second quarter, we made some jump shots, had some drives to the basket and got to the free throw line," Coach Meeks said after his team went from down 13 points in the second quarter to leading by 10 at halftime. "We started to play some defense and Kaskaskia slowed down on their three-point shooting which let us catch up."

"I think we just picked the tempo up and tried to speed them up with the press and the second quarter is where that showed up. For that stage in the game, that's about as good as we can play. I thought us not playing for two weeks really showed up. We've been down to six or seven players at practice. We played two girls tonight who hadn't practiced in about a week and a half, so we're a little rusty."

"I think this game will help us, we had to push ourselves to win the game. We played hard we didn't quit when we were down early. I'm pleased with how we played. We know what we have to work on, I think tomorrow we'll be a little better."

Alexis Radcliff led the Blazers with 16 points and eight rebounds. Nina Blade and Reeva Hammelman each finished with 14 points, with Blade grabbing seven boards and Hammelman getting six.

Shaila Beeler finished with 12 points, eight assists, six rebounds and three steals on the night.

Amani Brown and Trinitee Harris round out the VU scorers in double figures, with the pair finishing with 11 points each. Brown led VU with nine rebounds, while also dishing out four assists. Harris came off the bench to grab three rebounds.

The Lady Blazers brought out their press defense for the first time this season and the Blue Angels seemed to struggle with the up-tempo pace as the game wore on. VU got 15 steals as a team on 22 Kaskaskia turnovers.

"I really like basketball teams like this," Meeks added. "Teams that spread the scoring out. I like to have them play an up-tempo basketball game. The faster we get and the more we work on what we do to speed the tempo up, I think the better we're going to be. Shot making is a premium and when you have six players in double-figures that's good for the team. That means everybody is in the game, everybody's having an opportunity to shoot the ball and I think this team does a good job of sharing the ball. I'm pleased with the way we distribute the ball and we're not just one player scoring all the points."

Vincennes will hit the road this weekend as the Blazers take on Southwestern Illinois Saturday, Feb. 27. Tip-off is scheduled for 4 p.m. eastern.

"We will have to get our press squared away. We've been working on that two days, so we have to get better on that. I think we saw in various stages throughout the game that we had the right combination on the floor to be able to put the pressure on and take the ball, that's what we're going to have to have as we move further into the season."

"I think in the second quarter our press got to them a little and Kaskaskia turned the ball over several times. I thought we did an adequate job rebounding. We beat them by 20 and you like to see that on the positive side."

"We've got a bunch of things that we're going to have to work on but I'm pleased with the effort, pleased that we played as hard as we can play. We just have to take care of the ball more. We had a stretch where we turned the ball over four consecutive times and fumbled two rebounds that we could have scored on. Six possessions in a row and that counts."