No. 14 Trailblazers end regular season on a high after Sophomore Night win

VINCENNES, Ind. – The No.14-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers closed out the 2022-23 regular season Tuesday night with an 80-70 sophomore night win over Olney Central College.

The night began with the Trailblazer basketball team honoring and celebrating their six graduating sophomores. Five players; Tasos Cook (Columbus, Ohio), Trenton Johnson (South Bend, Ind.), Devawn White (Montreal, Quebec), Caleb Johnson (N. Preston, Nova Scotia) and Shilo Jackson (Indianapolis, Ind.) as well as graduating two-year basketball manager Luke Weiss (Vincennes, Ind.).

The five sophomore players made up the starting lineup for Vincennes and really did a bulk of the damage Tuesday night.

VU got off to a slow start but first broke away with an 8-0 scoring run to take a 20-14 lead midway through the first half.

The Blue Knights would rally back and take the lead several times throughout the later part of the opening period.

VU would close out the first half on a 6-0 scoring run to head into the halftime break with a 39-35 lead.

The lead changed hands 12 times in the opening 20 minutes of play between these two teams battling for positioning within next week’s Region 24 tournament.

The Trailblazers grabbed complete control of the game out of the locker room with VU opening the second half on a 17-5 run to take a 56-40 lead.

VU would grow their lead to 17 midway through the second half and looked to avoid giving up the big lead late.

Olney Central continued to battle and managed to get the Vincennes lead back down under double-digits, but the Blazers held on late as VU closed out the regular season with a big 80-70 win.

“Tonight it was the sophomores,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “Trenton, Devawn, Caleb, Tasos and Shilo, they were all really good. I thought Trenton and Devawn had excellent nights. We’ve been waiting for them to really step up. We love them and we know it’s in there and to see them come out here on sophomore night and do it was great. Now we’ll see if they can carry that into next week in tournament play. This is the time where you write the story they are always going to tell about you and hopefully tonight was the first big step toward that story really being what they really want it to be.”

VU was led offensively by Caleb Johnson, who finished with 24 points and three rebounds.

Devawn White set a new season-high in his final game at the P.E. Complex, ending with 10 points and four rebounds.

Trenton Johnson also reached double-figures with 10 points, two rebounds and a team-high two steals.

Tasos Cook distributed the ball well all night, ending with nine points and eight assists. Cook also grabbed four rebounds.

Shilo Jackson just missed a double-double in his final game on the VU floor, finishing his night with eight points and a team-high 10 rebounds and two blocks.

Freshman Kris King (Washington, D.C.) came off the bench to add nine points and three rebounds, while freshman Michael Osei-Bonsu (Bolingbrook, Ill.) just missed a double-double off the bench with seven points, 10 rebounds and three assists.

“When COVID hit, we were the best program in the country,” Franklin said. “I don’t even know how anybody could argue that. We had it humming and going and then the pandemic hit and it threw us off. So, this team has had to get us restarted and they have. This has been an outstanding season. We’re 26-4 and they have been a top 10 to 15 team all year and they have done it without the experience of having those guys back that have been to Elite Eights and Final Fours, they’ve really had to figure it out as we go.”

“This group has put VU back to where VU is supposed to be,” Franklin added. “And we’ve still got more steps to go to get there all the way. Hopefully we do and hopefully these guys are not done. We’re talking about the season right now like it’s finished, but it’s not.”

“These guys have been great,” Franklin said. “They’ve been good guys. They’ve been good off the court. That’s one thing with us, we try not to trade off talent for character of guys and that’s hard to do sometimes. But that’s what we’ve done with these guys and they have worked really hard and have managed to still make themselves one of the best teams in the country without us taking a few guys that maybe could have gotten our talent level even higher. But when you don’t do that, you have to have character guys because that’s what you are relying on and that’s what we’ve had this year.”

The Trailblazers will now begin preparing to go on a postseason run, beginning with the NJCAA Division I Region 24 tournament hosted by Rend Lake College in Ina, Ill.

Vincennes has earned the No. 2-seed overall with a 14-4 record in Region 24 play this season and will play the winner of No. 7 Lake Land College and No. 10 Lincoln Trail Monday, March 6 at 6 p.m. eastern.

Lincoln Trail and Lake Land will play Saturday, March 4 at Lake Land College in Mattoon, Ill. at 3 p.m. eastern.

“Tomorrow is going to be rest,” Franklin said. “We haven’t had a day off in a while. Then we will get back and go to work on Thursday. There’s nothing new here. We know that we have to get better at finishing games. It’s just a toughness thing. It was that way again tonight. We did a good job of getting a big enough lead to where we knew we were going to win, but then we let off the gas. We have to find a way to get through that and it comes down to having as many guys as possible ready to step up.”

“You can see the difference tonight when Devawn and Trenton step up,” Franklin added. “It made all the difference in the world in how you play. So we are going to see who we can get to really jump on that bandwagon and help us roll. Because now it’s postseason time and this is a quality ball club with high aspirations. So, I want to see them excited. I want to see them focused. I want to see them locked in, tough-minded and determined. Because you don’t get to do this very often in life and you certainly don’t get to be on a top 10 or so team in the country very often. I want them to embrace it and enjoy it and take advantage of it.”