No. 12 Trailblazers claim fourth-straight win in wire-to-wire fashion at Shawnee

ULLIN, Ill. – The No. 12-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers picked up a big Region 24 road win Thursday night after heading to Shawnee Community College and coming away with the 84-65 win.

The Trailblazers wasted little time grabbing control of this Region 24 showdown, scoring the first 16 points of the game and building a 27-8 lead midway through the first half.

Shawnee would answer back on their home floor however, cutting the VU lead down to single digits before halftime as the Blazers headed into the locker room leading 37-30 at the break.

The Saints would score the first basket out of the halftime break to cut VU’s lead down to just five, but this would be as close as Shawnee would get Thursday night as VU quickly grabbed the momentum back and built a commanding 69-47 lead late in the second half.

Shawnee would again not go away quietly as the Saints were spurred on by a late 8-0 scoring run, but ran out of steam as Vincennes picked up their fourth-straight win, going wire-to-wire to win 84-65 at Shawnee.

“I thought the start was really, really good,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “It wasn’t an accident. Our guys were locked in defensively on what the game plan was and what their tendencies were. I thought Ryan Oliver and Michael Osei-Bonsu were ready to go on the offensive end of the floor. Ryan gave us that punch from the outside that we have been looking for on the road. It was great to see him get over that hump. I thought he hasn’t played as well on the road as he does at home and tonight he did.”

“We were playing well, then we went to the bench and had a couple of defensive breakdowns,” Franklin added. “Shawnee got some easy buckets off of some things that they haven’t been getting. Then the score kind of held at 12 or 14 really for the rest of the half and then we had a bad end of the first half. We just had some guys who didn’t finish and finalize some plays. We had some guys start to get beat on the screens and our bigs that were in at the time didn’t really step up and give any resistance at the rim. Then the next thing you know, it’s a seven-point game.”

“We made some adjustments at halftime as to who was out there on the floor,” Franklin said. “I thought Karyiek Dixon gave us something to start the second half with some physicality. I thought our team was more intense in the second half. They played with a little bit more of that toughness that we always talk about. I know what that is. Obviously we’ve built our reputation on that and I’m trying to get that across to these young men and they don’t really know what it is yet. So it’s constantly every day trying to get them over that line. Sometimes it’s pretty, sometimes it’s not but we have got to get across that line if we want to get done the things that we can.”

“We are in a tremendous position right now,” Franklin added. “We’re 22-2. Playing who we’ve played and are in the position that we are as a legitimate top-10 team. We are going into February with a tremendous chance of going to the National Tournament and a tremendous chance to still get a bye at Hutch. We still have a great chance of being one of those teams at the end that is playing in a Final Four. So I’m going to do everything I can to get us over that hump. I thought we got closer to that in the second half and because of that, we were able to handle a pretty tough situation.”

“Shawnee in the second half, we knew they were just going to drive it right at us,” Franklin said. “Play very physical. Grab us, press us and we were tested. There were a few times where it weighed on us but overall, we did a good job with it. Hopefully that’s a growing moment for us because we are going to have to be extremely tough, mentally, physically and emotionally to compete to beat a tremendous Logan basketball team. I think since December, Logan has probably been the best basketball team in the country. But we want to flip places with them and I thought tonight was some growing things that we can build off of going into our week of preparation.”

VU was led offensively by a breakout performance by freshman Ryan Oliver (Antioch, Tenn.) who set a new career high with 24 points, including a stellar five of eight shooting behind the three-point arc, while also grabbing five rebounds.

Freshman Michael Osei-Bonsu (Bolingbrook, Ill.) controlled the boards from the jump and finished off a big double-double with 16 points and a career-high 17 rebounds.

Sophomore Caleb Johnson (N. Preston, Nova Scotia) continued his streak of scoring in double-figures Thursday by picking up 14 points and seven rebounds.

“Ryan has done that at home for us this year,” Franklin said. “He’s had those types of nights. He just hasn’t put one of those together on the road. Right now it’s all about getting to that next stage with this team. That’s what’s still exciting about this team, we’ll see if it happens or not, but so many of these guys have an opportunity to go up another level or two. Because they are still new guys who haven’t been through this and haven’t done this yet.”