VINCENNES, Ind. – The No. 18-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers opened up their weekend slate at the 2024 McDonald’s Classic Friday night inside the Physical Education Complex.
The Blazers went wire-to-wire over Richard J. Daley College in a 112-59 victory aided by 25 points on a perfect nine for nine from the floor shooting performance out of freshman Dayton Williams (Louisville, Ky.).
Vincennes got the offense going early Friday night, jumping out to an early 24-7 advantage before extending their lead even further with a 14-0 scoring run to take a 38-12 lead midway through the first half.
Vincennes continued to add pressure down the stretch of the opening 20 minute period, outscoring Daley 14-5 to end the first half with a 56-23 lead over the Bulldogs.
VU continued to roll into the second half, using an early 8-0 run to get the Trailblazer lead to 72-28 before later using a 9-0 scoring run to take an 88-36 advantage.
The Trailblazers closed out the game strong, crossing the century mark on the scoreboard for the first time this season and closing out the big 112-59.
“Well it’s always better when the ball goes in,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “We haven’t hit a lot of shots from the outside when we played in jamborees or our first two games of the season, even though we’ve had the capability of shooting it well in the preseason before we started playing.”
“I tried to so some things this week to just get it more solid,” Franklin added. “Keep it simple. It’s, here’s what your doing and it’s real basic and really simple and we’re going to make sure that we’re there. Maybe that helped out with the balance a little bit. When guys are balanced when they shoot it instead of, I probably had them moving around trying to do too much for a young team like this. We tried to get back to basics and tried to be a little more physical in the block.”
“We tried to be a little more simple in our movements outside,” Franklin said. “Just worry about spacing and simple actions and it worked for tonight.”
Vincennes was led offensively by a big night by freshman Dayton Williams, who finished with 25 points, six rebounds, three assists and three blocks on a perfect nine of nine shooting from the floor, including hitting seven of seven from three-point range.
Freshman Kenaz Ochogwu (E. Providence, R.I.) just missed out on a double-double, making a big impact off the bench to end his night with 19 points and eight rebounds.
Sophomore Michael Cooper (Minneapolis, Minn.) recorded his first VU double-double with 15 points and a team-high 11 rebounds on the night.
Sophomore Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) also finished the night with 15 points, four rebounds and three steals, while freshman Travelle Bryson (Anderson, S.C.) came off the bench to score in double figures, ending with 13 points and six rebounds.
Sophomore and 2024 NJCAA All-American Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) distributed the ball well all night, finishing the game with a team-high 11 assists, along with six points and five rebounds.
Freshman Jalen Calloway (Chicago, Ill.) just missed out on scoring in double figures in the first start of his collegiate career, scoring nine points, with seven assists and six rebounds.
“I thought there was a number of good things in the box score tonight,” Franklin said. “I didn’t think we moved our feet defensively very well in the second half. We were okay in the first half. In the second half I thought we started hopping instead of getting down and moving them. Particularly at the four-spot. Their four was attacking us and I’m not really pleased with that but there were a lot of good things out there.”
