Lady Trailblazers close out weekend with big win over Highland (IL) at VU Classic

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Lady Trailblazers finished out the 2021 VU Classic with a commanding 89-40 win over Highland Community College Saturday night.

Vincennes carried their momentum over from Friday night's win over Indiana Tech JV, closing out the first quarter on a 12-0 scoring run to take a 22-7 lead after the first 10 minutes of play.

VU's outside shooters, sophomore Laila Grant (Derwood, Md.) and freshman Cherrelle Newsom (Indianapolis, Ind.), got started early for the Trailblazers, with the pair accounting for three made three's each in the first half.

Vincennes rode this shooting wave to a 32-point lead at the break, leading 49-17 over the Cougars.

The Lady Blazers continued to put their foot down in the second half, only allowing Highland to score six points in the third quarter.

VU finished out the game strong and continued to build their lead as the Lady Blazers finished off their weekend with a 49-point victory, winning 89-40.

"I thought we played terrific, especially defensively," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Harry Meeks said. "We shut down everything they wanted to do today. We were quick to the ball. We did a really good job of helping and stopping the drives. I can't think of anything defensively that we did wrong. I'll take what we got here and keep working on it."

"Our girls are very excited about the win," Meeks added. "They are excited about how they played. They were excited to see Cristina Requejo (Gijon, Spain) get her first basket and things are all good."

Laila Grant led the Lady Blazers offensively, finishing with a game-high 16 points, four rebounds and three assists.

Cherrelle Newsom finished with 13 points, three assists and three steals, while sophomore Anete Bluma (Saldus, Latvia) finished the game off for VU with 13 points of her own and six rebounds.

Sophomore Nina Blade (Milwaukee, Wis.) was the fourth Lady Blazer to finish with double-digit points, ending with 10 points, six rebounds and six steals.

Freshman Trinitee Harris (Elkhart, Ind.) nearly missed a double-double, finishing with nine points, seven assists and five rebounds.

"The whole team did a really good job of scoring the ball," Meeks said. "I'm really excited about the way that Nina Blade played. She played outstanding basketball and we're going to need that from her. Playing well never hurts your mindset, so I was very pleased with how our young ladies played."

The Lady Trailblazers will have more than a week now to prepare for their next opponent, when Vincennes will host No. 4-ranked Three Rivers College Monday, Nov. 29. Tip-off time is set for 7 p.m. eastern.

"We're going to keep practicing and keep working over this break. There's always something to work on," Meeks added. "We'll work on block outs more. Work on running our offense, just little adjustment we need to work on. I'm really looking forward to working with them this week and seeing how much progress we can make."

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (89): Nina Blade 5-8 0-0 10, Macy Michels 2-4 0-0 4, Trinitee Harris 4-8 1-2 9, Cherrelle Newsom 5-12 0-0 13, Laila Grant 6-13 0-0 16, Day'Lynn Thornton 0-2 0-0 0, Candela Lascorz 3-3 0-0 6, Elena Aznar 1-3 1-2 3, Guadalupe Lopez 4-6 0-4 8, Kylee Shelton 2-8 1-2 5, Cristina Requejo 1-2 0-0 2, Anete Bluma 6-11 0-0 13, Team 39-80 3-10 89.

Highland – 7  10  6  17 – 40

VU (5-3) – 22  27  17  23 – 89

Three-point goals: VU 8 (Grant 4, Newsom 3, Bluma 1). Rebounds: VU 35 (Michels 7). Assists: VU 28 (Harris 7). Steals: VU 26 (Blade 6). Blocked shots: VU 5 (Blade 2, Lopez 2). Turnovers: VU 8. Personal Fouls: VU 17. Fouled out: None.