VINCENNES, Ind. – The No. 18-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers opened their 2024-25 campaign Friday night inside the Physical Education Complex with day one of the 2024 Kiwanis Classic against East Mississippi Community College.
The Blazers were able to battle back from a 13-point second half deficit to force overtime and come away with an 80-73 victory over the Lions.
Vincennes got off to a slow start in the season opener, with East Mississippi scoring the first seven points of the game, which VU immediately answered with a 7-0 run of their own.
VU broke away midway through the first half with a 13-2 scoring run to take a 28-18 advantage over the Lions before EMCC answered back with a late first half 12-0 scoring run to regain the lead at 35-32.
The teams would trade baskets going into the break with East Mississippi holding a 37-33 lead over the Trailblazers going into the locker room at halftime.
Coming out of locker room in the second half EMCC looked determined to put the game away early, building the largest lead of the game at 53-40 with 15 minutes remaining on the clock.
The Lion lead would remain at double digits before the Blazers got the crowd back into the game with an 8-0 run to cut the East Mississippi lead to 60-57.
VU would even the score at 61-61 with 3:30 to play before the Lions answered back with five straight.
Vincennes refused to go away, closing out regulation with a three-point play by sophomore and 2024 NJCAA All-American Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) and a basket by sophomore Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) evening the score again at 66-66 with 28 seconds left.
The VU defense would hold, sending this game into overtime.
In the overtime period, the two teams began by trading shots back and forth, with VU getting a spark off of a three by freshman Christian Andrews (Asheville, N.C.) before Lebron Thomas sealed the game late at the free throw line, closing out the victory for the Blazers by the final score 80-73.
“We just made more solid plays,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “I thought we fought on the defensive end pretty well except for the last five minutes of the first half. Those last five minutes we gave in to a little bit of the ‘we’re ahead and I’m tired’ mentality and we were a little slow on close outs, a little soft on post defense. We got a little loose and we gave them a chance to get momentum and then it was a heck of a thing to get it away from them.”
“I thought we were fighting and trying to get traction the first 10 minutes of the second half,” Franklin added. “We just couldn’t quite finish plays and make the little shots. Of course they throw up one at the shot clock from about 40 feet. But we showed a lot of toughness tonight. We didn’t do anything special. We just said we need to get solid and get stops. We know what we need to do to get stops.”
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