Lady Trailblazers fall to Southwestern Illinois on Sophomore Night

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Lady Trailblazers celebrated their final home game of the 2022-23 season Wednesday night but could not keep the celebration going as the Lady Blazers fell to Southwestern Illinois College 75-71.

Vincennes got off to a quick start against the Lady Blue Storm, grabbing an early 20-12 lead before SWIC answered back late in the first quarter to close out the opening period on a 10-0 scoring run to lead VU 22-20 after 10 minutes of play.

Southwestern Illinois continued to grow their lead in the second quarter, leading by seven at one point before the Lady Blazers took back the momentum of the game and closed out the first half of play on a 13-2 scoring run.

Vincennes held a 40-34 lead heading into the halftime locker room break.

VU would ride this momentum into the early stages of the second half, taking the only double-digit lead of the game at 44-34 before the Lady Blue Storm slowly chipped away at the lead and took the momentum back with a late 7-0 scoring run in the third quarter.

VU would grab the lead back with a buzzer beater layup by freshman Brie Miller (Greencastle, Ind.) to end the third quarter and take a 55-54 lead into the final 10 minutes of play.

Southwestern Illinois grabbed control back early in the fourth quarter, taking a 66-60 lead before VU would rally to close the margin to two at 71-69.

This would be as close as the Lady Blazers would get however as free throw shooting down the stretch allowed SWIC to come away with the 75-71 win over VU.

VU was led offensively by freshman Elikya Baseyila (Paris, France) who continued her excellent play in the low post with 19 points and six rebounds.

Freshman Maycee Lange (Vincennes, Ind.) played off of the bench due to VU starting all four active sophomores but still had a tremendous impact on the game. Lange ended her night with 13 points, a team-high seven rebounds, a career-high seven steals and four assists.

Sophomore Cherrelle Newsom (Indianapolis, Ind.) kept the Lady Blazers in the game throughout with timely three-pointers on her way to 11 points and a team-high five assists.

Sophomore Daylynn Thornton (Lafayette, Ind.) finished her night with 10 points, five rebounds, a pair of assists and two steals.

The Lady Blazers will close out the 2022-23 regular season this Saturday, when VU travels to Mt. Carmel, Ill. to take on No. 12-ranked Wabash Valley College Saturday, Feb. 25. Tip-off time for the Lady Blazers is set for 2 p.m. eastern.

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (71): Elikya Baseyila 8-12 3-5 19, Kennadi Harris 2-12 3-4 7, Cherrelle Newsom 4-14 0-2 11, Chanice Willis 2-7 0-0 5, Daylynn Thornton 2-11 5-8 10, Ra'Mya Milton 1-1 0-0 2, Brie Miller 2-4 0-2 4, Maycee Lange 6-13 0-0 13, Team 27-74 11-21 71.

Southwestern IL – 22   12   20   21 – 75

VU (19-9, 12-3) – 20   20   15  16 – 71

Three-point goals: VU 6 (Newsom 3, Willis, Thornton, Lange). Rebounds: VU 33 (Lange 7). Assists: VU 18 (Newsom 5). Steals: VU 14 (Lange 7). Blocked Shots: VU 3 (Baseyila, Newsom, Lange). Turnovers: VU 12. Personal Fouls: VU 16. Fouled out: None.