No. 23 Trailblazers erase double-digit second half deficit in comeback win over D-II No. 5 Macomb

VINCENNES, Ind. – The No. 23 Vincennes University Trailblazers were on upset alert with 15 minutes to play Friday night on the opening night of the McDonald’s Classic after falling behind 48-32 to NJCAA Division II No. 5-ranked Macomb Community College.

The Trailblazers rallied back on the home floor to outscore the Monarchs 34-10 in the final 15 minutes of play as VU came away with the 66-58 win.

Vincennes grabbed the momentum early against Macomb, jumping out to a 20-14 lead midway through the first half.

Macomb would respond back with an 8-0 run to take the lead and extend their lead to five points at the break, with VU heading into the locker room down 33-28.

Macomb continued this strong run in the second half, opening up the final 20 minutes of play with a 15-4 run to take a 16-point lead.

Vincennes began to slowly chip away at the deficit, using an 11-0 run to pull within five but the Monarchs responded to hold a 58-52 lead late.

VU again went on the attack and grabbed the momentum back as VU evened the score at 58-all with just over three minutes to play and took the lead with two and a half minutes to play.

The Trailblazers closed out the game on a 14-0 scoring run to pull away late and pick up the 66-58 win over Macomb.

“We found some guys in the last 15 minutes that wanted to fight,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “We had to get a little focus and a little fight and that was the difference for us tonight. We spread the floor and went a little smaller with one post in the interior because we weren’t getting what we needed to out of our posts.”

“That was a really good team that we played tonight,” Franklin added. “Macomb is really good. They give you a stylistic approach that is tough. Their point guard is tough. You look at him and you think ‘I don’t know’, he is tough. He battles and fights. They stretch you and back door you with their screens and cuts.”

“I thought, overall, it was a good defensive effort,” Franklin said. “To hold that team to 58 points and to make it tough on them. They shot 38-percent from the field. There are a lot of positives there. We kept their assist numbers down. They are really good at hitting you, breaking you down and hitting back door cuts and hitting the seams to get a lot of assists and we really didn’t give them that. Lost in the fact that we did some things that were sloppy throughout the game, which hurt our defense at times, I thought our defense was pretty good all night when it was allowed to be.”

“We made them grind and I think we wore them down,” Franklin added. “I thought in the last 10 minutes they really felt the intensity of the game. We’ll see how good a win this is by what it propels us to. Like all of these things early, we are trying to learn while we win. We did that tonight. We’ve had really quality opponents so far. Kankakee, Columbia State and Macomb, those are good teams. They are going to win a lot of basketball games this year and they present different challenges. It’s good to be 5-0. It’s good to see our grit when we are pushed up against a wall. It’s good to see that we could find some guys that were willing to fight. But we’ll see how good it is by what our reaction is tomorrow.”

The Blazers were led offensively with a big game off the bench by freshman Michael Osei-Bonsu (Bolingbrook, Ill.) who finished with 16 points and five rebounds.

Sophomores Caleb Johnson (N. Preston, Nova Scotia) and Shilo Jackson (Indianapolis, Ind.) also reached double-figures scoring for VU with Johnson ending with 11 points and three rebounds and Jackson finishing with 10 points, seven rebounds and four blocks.

Freshman Kale Gaither (Madisonville, Ky.) ran the VU offense down the stretch on his way to nine points, six rebounds and a team-high four assists.

Freshman Ryan Oliver (Nashville, Ind.) had a big game off the bench, finishing with seven points and a team-high eight rebounds.

“We opened the floor up late and went with Michael at the post,” Franklin said. “Michael played really well tonight, he just couldn’t quit fouling. He fouled. He would put two hands on you, push, put a hook, all of the things we tell him not to. He has to eliminate them because if Michael had been able to play all night, I thought he was ready to go from the start, you could see it. He only played 12 minutes and got 16 points. I think he would have had a monster night if we had kept him out of foul trouble.”