No. 5 Trailblazers get five in double figures in win over Kankakee

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University men’s basketball team moved up one spot in this week’s NJCAA Division I National rankings to No. 5 and got their first chance to defend this new ranking against Kankakee Community College Tuesday night.

The Trailblazers had all five starters score in double figures as the Blazers finished off an 86-62 victory over the visiting Cavaliers.

Vincennes got off to a great start in front of the home crowd, scoring eight of the first nine points of the game and building a 13-5 early lead over Kankakee.

The Cavaliers would answer back to go on an 11-2 scoring run to take their first lead of the game at 16-15, before VU responded with an 8-0 scoring run of their own to take the lead back.

VU would outscore Kankakee 17-4 to build their largest lead of the first half at 32-20 before closing out the first 20 minutes of play and heading into the locker room with a 41-31 advantage over the Cavaliers.

Vincennes continued to slowly grow their lead early in the second half, getting up to 61-41 before Kankakee answered with six unanswered.

The Trailblazers would use an 11-2 scoring run to get the lead back to 76-53 and would hold on through the rest of the game to close out the 86-62 victory over Kankakee.

“Give credit to Kankakee for coming in here and playing hard,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “They cut to the basket. They drove to the basket. We knew that would happen and they did. They play five guys that all play like perimeter guys, so everybody’s got to be sound in that way. They are not going to get a lot done posting up and they didn’t because that’s by choice. They were going to press us. They’ve been pressing coming into the game, so we assumed they would. I never know because I don’t coach the other team, I can only tell you what they’ve been doing.”

“I thought we had a pretty good idea of what we needed to do,” Franklin added. “But tonight, it would be better to talk to our players because they made a lot of decisions on how they wanted to play tonight that were not decisions that would have come from me. So they are probably smarter than I am, so there’s really no reason for me to do a whole lot of talking and I didn’t do any talking the last five minutes of the game. There’s probably no reason if they don’t want to hear me.”

“I wouldn’t like our chances by the end of this week,” Franklin said. “But that’s me, so I’m sure I’m wrong. I wanted to see how we handled prosperity after Saturday. The Saturday before we didn’t play really well. Columbia State is good and tough. I don’t want to say something to disrespect them because they are. But I didn’t think we played really well. We had a little more attention to detail during the week and I thought we played better this past weekend because of that. And then I thought all of that went out the window tonight.”

“I’m here trying to help them,” Franklin added. “We’ve helped a lot of guys. We’ve won a lot of ball games and got a lot of guys scholarships and have gone on to be pros. A lot of guys swear by the little silly stuff that I say. But if you don’t want to hear it, I’m only saying it because I want to help you, then that’s fine. I’ll sit here and cross my legs and see how that works out by Saturday. I hope it works out. They are all smarter than I am, so I’m sure it will work out fine.”

“Other than that, I just didn’t think we were locked into the way that we are supposed to play and obviously I will be disappointed by that,” Franklin said. “But I’m probably just a silly man, so that doesn’t matter.”

Vincennes was led offensively tonight by sophomore Michael Osei-Bonsu (Bolingbrook, Ill.) who finished with 17 points, seven rebounds and four steals.

Sophomore Karyiek Dixon (Enfield, London, UK) added 16 points and six rebounds, while freshman Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) came away with 14 points and five assists.

Sophomores Kent and Kris King (Washington, D.C.) rounded out the VU scorers in double figures, with Kent scoring 14 points and adding five assists, four rebounds and three blocks, while his twin brother Kris finished with 13 points, eight rebounds and a team-high six assists.

Freshman Damarien Yates (Somerville, Tenn.) came off the bench to grab a team-high 11 rebounds Tuesday night, while sophomore Ryan Oliver (Antioch, Tenn.) came through with eight points and seven rebounds on the night.

“I thought there were moments,” Franklin said. “Damarien having 11 rebounds is good. I thought there were good things and we just mixed it all around. We were loose so it’s tough for me. I don’t know that I saw anybody that was solid all the way through type of game. But there were moments.”

“I thought we should have an advantage inside and at times we did,” Franklin added. “But if you go back and watch I’d say when you saw that we did, the ball swung and it was on the back side and somebody actually sealed like they wanted. When we actually did that instead of just standing there, looking at it and throwing a pity pass on the first side, which is what we coach not to do. When we did what we were supposed to do then we were pretty effective and those guys had positive plays.”

“We finally threw one out from the post to the corner,” Franklin said. “It was late in the game and Ryan made a shot. It’s amazing how that happened. We couldn’t get that done all day. We would get inside and they would get three guys around us and then we would wallow around with it and we would look everywhere else but the strong corner where the guy can be wide open.”

“But again, I don’t know anything,” Franklin added. “That’s what I liked and then we did it one time and it looked pretty good once. I just didn’t think it was a lot of what we usually do. I thought we were slinging the ball around. We were really loose with it. Jumping in the air to pass and it was really hard to get us to stay in a stance defensively, even though we knew they were going to drive or cut. It’s hard, for me, after that game to say who played well because that just kept happening.”

“I’m sure somebody played really well when I go back and really break it down,” Franklin said. “We made plays. There were times when guys made plays but did we sustain a good effort? I don’t know. But we made enough plays to win tonight. But from what I know, that probably won’t get it done later in the week. But maybe it will. There were guys who made plays. We scored 86 points, so people generated enough to get 86 points. 62 points is not a bad number. So there were some things there. It’s always good to outrebound a team 51-28. It’s always good to shoot 50 percent, so there were good things there.”

The Trailblazers will remain at home for the rest of the week, taking the floor again this Thursday, Nov. 16 when VU hosts Malcolm X College from Chicago, Ill. at 7 p.m. eastern.

VU will then close out the week with a big NJCAA Division I Top-10 showdown with No. 7-ranked Indian Hills Community College Saturday, Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. eastern.

“I guess maybe, they are telling me I need to temper my expectations,” Franklin said. “My expectations are that we are going to be a really, really good basketball team and really contend for Final Fours and National Championships. That’s what we are trying to do. We’re not going to be at that level right now, but we really need to be trying every day to get there and I didn’t see that today. But maybe that’s not our expectations.”

“I can sit back and cross my legs,” Franklin added. “It was kind of like during the game, I’m sitting on the bench and when we are on defense, we have a little ‘defense’ chant we’ve always done. It’s a little corny thing, but we do it. Not tonight. Nobody did it and I think that pretty much epitomized tonight. We didn’t want to do what we do. We’ve all figured it out. So I guess that’s how we handle prosperity. But that’s fine. I’m not going to fight them. That’s why I crossed my legs at the end of the game and that’s why I’ll do it again tomorrow. In the old days, you’d get them in here and run them. But it’s a kinder, gentler world now. If they don’t want to do it, then I guess we’ll get embarrassed.”

“I’m probably going to be too hard because I’m trying to get us to be one of those teams that ends up with one of those banners,” Franklin said. “And I’m trying to get as many of these guys as I can to be Division I players, which is why everybody said they were coming here. I’ve done that forever, so I have a pretty good idea, so when my deal doesn’t match theirs, it’s hard for me to think that I’m off. But I’ll say that I am. That my expectations are too great. But I don’t think that will end up with them on a banner and I don’t think that will end up with them being Division I players.”

“I come out of tonight with that kind of mindset and I don’t think that tonight was at the level of moving forward to get to either of those things,” Franklin added. “We’ve had a lot of success over the years, but I’m sure that’s just been luck. I didn’t get the response I wanted to tonight and that probably means I’m wrong.”

“But my honest assessment is that we were not playing like Division I players individually,” Franklin said. “We’ve trained Division I players here, so we know, after roughly 140 of them over the years and that wasn’t a team that looked like it was bought in to aspire to be a championship level team or to be right there at the end battling with the best of the best. If they want to do that and they want my input on it that’s fine, I’ll give it to them. If they don’t then I’ll cross my legs. If you think I won’t, I will. I’m only doing this to try to help them.”

“I’ll try to do better,” Franklin added. “My instincts say that that wasn’t good enough, but the numbers we put up say it was pretty good. We’re still turning the ball over. We had 19 turnovers tonight. Every game has been 17, 18 or 19. It’d be hard to win continuing to do that. Our assist numbers were pretty good. Kankakee ended up shooting 33.8, we’ve held people down this year and we did again tonight. So the guys, I guess, did a good job. But I didn’t look out there and see what I think will win on Saturday.”

“What I watched tonight, I don’t think is going to beat Indian Hills or go on the road and beat Moberly or go up to Indian Hills and win,” Franklin said. “Or be the best team in the District when it’s all said and done. It might be now, but those teams are only going to get better. It’d be hard for us to go win at Olney playing like we did tonight. Logan’s going to get better. They have plenty of talent. By the time we have to see them, it’s going to be a problem. It’s hard for me to see us play out there tonight and I think if we played CSI last year at the National tournament. Do you think what we did tonight would be able to beat CSI on the National tournament floor like we did last year? I don’t see that and I know we’re not there yet. But I want to aspire to that.”

“That’s where my frustrations come from,” Franklin added. “But that’s me. I’m probably wanting too much. So I’ll temper my expectations and when it doesn’t happen and guys don’t get to be on the banners or get Division I scholarships, they chose a different route then what we want to choose around here. But I’m just trying to get them better, so I’m not going to get mad. I’m too old to be bothered by that if you don’t want it that bad. If you do, I would guess they would do what I wanted because it’s been pretty successful. I hope they come out and do it. I’ve been rooting for them but I don’t know that I saw that tonight.”

BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (86) – Kris King 4-12 4-5 13, Kent King 3-8 6-8 14, Lebron Thomas 4-9 6-9 14, Michael Osei-Bonsu 8-10 1-2 17, Karyiek Dixon 7-11 2-4 16, Damarien Yates 2-4 0-0 4, Gerard Thomas 0-1 0-0 0, Mathieu Nader-Kalombo 0-1 0-0 0, Ryan Oliver 3-6 1-2 8, Victor Lado 0-0 0-0 0, Team 31-62 20-30 86.

Kankakee – 31   31 – 62

VU (5-0) – 41   45 – 86

Three-point goals: VU 4 (Ke. King 2, Kr. King, Oliver). Rebounds: VU 51 (Yates 11). Assists: VU 21 (Kr. King 6). Steals: VU 11 (Osei-Bonsu 4). Blocked Shots: VU 8 (Ke. King 3). Turnovers: VU 19. Personal Fouls: VU 13. Fouled out: None. Technical Fouls: VU (Ke. King).