No. 10 Trailblazers grind it out late in physical defensive battle with SWIC

VINCENNES, Ind. – The No. 10-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers faced a tough, 40-minute physical battle Wednesday night against Southwestern Illinois College at the P.E. Complex and came away with the 65-62 win.

SWIC received votes for the NJCAA Top-25 this week but were unable to crack the list and wasted little time showing why many believe they should be in the Top-25 this week.

This game was a back-and-forth battle from the start, with neither team really able to break lose in the early going.

The lead changed hands four times and the game was tied six different times throughout the opening 20 minutes of play, with SWIC able to grab a 31-29 lead at the break.

Vincennes looked to grab the early momentum out of the locker room and did so with a 10-0 scoring run to take a 39-33 lead.

VU would later use an 8-0 scoring run to take a nine-point lead, but once again the Blue Storm found a way to answer back and evened the game at 54-54.

VU sophomore Tasos Cook (Columbus, Ohio) completely swung the momentum back to the home Blue and Gold by hitting a three-pointer with just under two minutes to play to give VU a 57-54 lead.

The Trailblazers would grow their lead to five before SWIC would rally to cut the deficit to one, before VU answered with an open layup under the basket by freshman Michael Osei-Bonsu (Bolingbrook, Ill.).

After a pair of late free throws by the Blue Storm, sophomore Caleb Johnson (N. Preston, Nova Scotia) broke loose behind the SWIC defense to help seal the game with a layup.

Southwestern Illinois was unable to convert on a buzzer-beater three and the Trailblazers came away with the tough 65-62 win.

“We just gutted it out tonight,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “I thought we had chances to take control in the second half at times. We got up nine, but it’s going to be a gritty, gutsy game when we are not hitting shots from the perimeter. At some point guys have to step up in big games and be able to make those shots because it makes things so much harder when we’ve really got to break people down in order to get the ball inside.”

“We hit a big shot late,” Franklin added. “Tasos got one on an inside-out action, which we could have gotten those things most all night. But this game was tough, gutty. Southwestern is a top-30 team in the country. They were receiving votes this week and they deserve to be. It’s hard to get into the poll when you know they are only going to put a couple of teams in at the most and us and John A. Logan have been up there the whole time. But SWIC has been a quality team all year and they are playing really well now. They came into tonight winning five games in a row and they are going to be a tough out in the Region tournament. We may very well see them again.”

VU was led offensively by Tasos Cook who finished with 15 points, 13 of which came in the second half. Cook would also grab a pair of rebounds.

Caleb Johnson continued his streak of scoring in double figures with 13 points, eight rebounds, a team-high six assists and a pair of blocks.

Michael Osei-Bonsu was the third VU scorer to reach double digits, battling foul trouble to come away with 13 points, five rebounds and a pair of assists.

Freshman Kris King (Washington, D.C.) came off the bench to add some quality minutes late on his way to eight points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals.

“The biggest thing tonight was collectively, we outrebounded them 40 to 20,” Franklin said. “SWIC is one of the better rebounding teams in the league and really one of the better rebounding teams in the country. For us to do that was a great effort on our team’s part. Then we should win a ball game like that by double figures, when you outrebound a team 40 to 20.”

“We just didn’t hit shots,” Franklin added. “At the end of the day, we didn’t hit shots from the perimeter and we don’t have that ‘break down’ guy so it’s just going to be a grind. I thought Michael did a good job on the block when we were uncovered and could get him. Tasos, in the second half, was tougher. Caleb didn’t make shots from the perimeter tonight. We’ve got to have that. But he hung in there and made a few plays down the stretch mentally that we are going to have to get sharper that put us in a hole to where we probably would have won by five or nine.”

“Across the board, it’s just what it was,” Franklin said. “There’s ups and downs throughout the game. There were good plays and bad plays by all of the guys who played. But it’s going to be an ugly game when you’ve got two teams that play defense, fight and battle like that this time of year with that much on the line. Especially when you are not busting shots from the perimeter.”

“I thought we had good character tonight,” Franklin added. “We’re learning, this has been a new team all year and we are still learning. We’re learning how to handle things. We’re learning how to get through that wall and play with a little toughness and maybe a little nastiness instead of a little tightness. That’s what we are preaching right now. I thought we had good performances. We played everybody. But if we are going to win a Championship, we need really 40 minutes of really positive play from our point guard spot and we’ve got to bust some shots, especially from that two-spot.”

“Caleb has hit shots pretty good for us all year, but tonight he didn’t really hit the perimeter shot,” Franklin said. “He still did some good things, so then we are left looking around asking, ‘who is going to’. We’ve got a lot of guys and I’m just telling you that you need to find whatever is inside yourself and be able to bring it with all of these bright lights and bust it. Because it makes it very difficult to win these ball games, or a lot more difficult than it should be.”

“I didn’t think we did a very good job of stopping Boyd from putting his head down and going right at the rim,” Franklin added. “That just can’t happen. We got better at that as the game went along. But in the first half we let him do whatever he wanted. But that, again, is a toughness thing. Those are things that we can learn from this ball game if we want to be champions. Obviously we are in a tremendous position when you are sitting here at 25-3 and it goes on to the next game.”

The Trailblazers will now hit the road for their final true road game of the 2022-23 season Saturday, Feb. 25 when VU takes on Wabash Valley College in Mt. Carmel, Ill. Tip-off time Saturday is set for 4 p.m. eastern.

VU defeated the Warriors 84-61 earlier this season at the P.E. Complex, behind 22 points by Caleb Johnson, 18 points by Tasos Cook and 16 points by freshman Ryan Oliver (Antioch, Tenn.).

“The next game for us is big,” Franklin said. “If we can find a way to get us a couple of wins here, it was three, now it’s two, I just don’t know how people can keep us out of the tournament if we can win these next couple.”

“But they are tough ball games,” Franklin added. “Going to Wabash, who is red hot coming into tonight and we know that Olney is going to be a load. Olney has had Dickerson out, who is their leading scorer and he will be back, I’m sure Tuesday night to face us. It’s going to be more of the same as to what you saw tonight I imagine and if we can hit a couple of shots, then we can stretch this out instead of being nip and tuck all game. We were on the verge of that tonight when we were up nine and we relaxed again on the defensive end. Right when you know the best players on the other team are going to step their games up.”

“We’ll see what we learn from tonight,” Franklin said. “We’ll see if we come out tougher, a little harder edged Saturday. If somebody is going to have that confidence and that hard edge to step into that shot and move the ball a little crisper, because whenever we moved the ball in our actions, our success rate was really high. We’ve just got to get sharper. It’s hard. These games like this, you don’t really learn what these games are until you are in them. Anybody watching it, you don’t know what they are either until you are on that floor. That’s a different kind of things out there on that floor. With what’s on the line and the physicality and the toughness and both teams having a pretty good idea of what they are trying to do and are going at it pretty hard at this point. So I’m proud of our guys, that they were able to find a way to get it done tonight.”