No. 6 Blazers remain unbeaten after Region 24 defensive showdown with Shawnee

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Trailblazer men’s basketball team stayed at No. 6 in this week’s NJCAA Division I polls and continued their winning streak Wednesday night at the P.E. Complex after winning 70-52 over Region 24 opponent Shawnee Community College.

The Trailblazers looked to set the tone early and quickly jumped out to a seven-point lead in the first half.

The Saints would rally back to even the game before VU secured all momentum with a 10-0 scoring run.

VU would gain an 11-point advantage before surrendering a point late in the first half as Vincennes went into the locker room holding a 32-22 lead over Shawnee.

Sophomore Caleb Johnson (N. Preston, Nova Scotia) got the VU offense going early with 10 first half points. Johnson has scored in double-figures in 12 of VU’s 13 games this season.

Vincennes looked to keep their foot on the gas to start the second half, growing their lead to 18 before Shawnee looked to rally back again.

The Saints could only cut the deficit to 13 as VU pulled away late with a 23-point lead and ended the night with an 18-point, 70-52 win over Shawnee.

“This game was like I thought it would be,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “We knew that (Shawnee Coach John Sparks) would have them ready. I thought, when I watched their game Saturday that he had gotten their attention and had an idea of what he would do. He would try to slow it down and run his sets. Might, in spurts try to run and press us, which they really didn’t get to tonight. But what he was doing in the half court, slowing the game down and either getting something off of his actions or try to beat us off the bounce and hope he gets fouled or makes plays and set up his defense at the other end.”

“That was the plan and because of that we shot 21 of 61,” Franklin added. “When you do that, it’s hard to pull away. They were executing their plan. They didn’t turn the ball over and they had some guys that were going to put some pressure on you and we didn’t finish very well. But they couldn’t score on us very much. We grinded it out. We led by 10 at half, then we never let it get below that and pushed it up to about 20 in the second half. So, we beat them by about 10 each half and had control. That was just the nature of the game. It was kind of like what I said against Danville earlier, if you are not going to hit the open shot outside, it’s going to be a grind and tonight was a grind it out game.”

“What we did do well was shoot our free throws,” Franklin said. “That made up for our inability to hit the other shots. But we are in the middle of finals week. It’s not making excuses, but we had some guys who uncharacteristically were struggling. I think some of that is it being some of their first time being through a finals week. It’s tough, but it was what it was, it was a grinder.”

“Now we are going to have to turn it up,” Franklin added. “Finals are over tomorrow and then we will have from Friday to the following Tuesday to do nothing but basketball. We’ve got to get our team together and this is a time to really get energized and get better. We’ve obviously got some big games coming up at Logan and Lake Land and Southwest Tennessee coming here, so it’s a unique time for us to really get better. We’ll see if we do. We’ve kind of hit a plateau here during finals and all of these games. I think we’ve hit a little bit of a plateau and we will have to gear it up if we are going to win at Logan next Wednesday.”

VU was led offensively by Caleb Johnson who finished his night with 16 points on a very efficient nine shots and three rebounds.

Sophomore Shilo Jackson (Indianapolis, Ind.) recorded his fourth double-double of the season, 19th of his career and third-straight double-double with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Jackson also dished out a pair of assists and made nine of his 11 shots from the free throw line Wednesday.

Sophomores Tasos Cook (Columbus, Ohio) and Devawn White (Montreal, Quebec each finished with eight points, with White coming off the bench to grab six rebounds as well.

Vincennes as a team took care of the basketball all night, finishing the game with just five turnovers, while also hitting 25 of 27 shots from the free throw line and grabbing 17 offensive rebounds on the night.

“Well, we had a bunch of offensive rebounds, but we had to have a bunch of offensive rebounds because we missed a bunch of shots,” Franklin said. “Those two kind of go together a little bit. But we needed to go get them and we did tonight. Hitting free throws and getting second shots and holding them down defensively were the keys to the game. Shawnee wasn’t going to turn the ball over a lot the way that they were playing and we didn’t turn it over hardly at all and that was big.”

“It was a value possession game and try to grind and try to get away from them if you are not going to make a shot,” Franklin added. “It wasn’t an over exhilarating kind of game but it was a workman-like game in the middle of finals. Tonight, we had to figure out a way to get through it and we did and this will go down as a ‘W’ at the end of the year, just like the rest of them. That’s fine for tonight, but now we’ve got to kick it up. Finals week is almost over. We get from now until next Wednesday to really get ready for a big game on the road. It will probably be the first of three meetings with John A. Logan this year, with a possible fourth if we see each other in Kansas. It’s not overly big, but for us it’s the big one down the road and if we don’t get energized enough and sharp enough then we are not going to go on the road and win that game. That’s too hard to do. But we’ve got about eight days to get sharp enough, so that’s what we will start doing.”

The No. 6 Trailblazers will hit the road to close out the week as VU travels to Chicago, Ill. to take on Harry S. Truman College Saturday, Dec. 10 at 4 p.m. eastern. This game will be played at Richard J. Daley College in Chicago.

Vincennes will look to avoid falling into a look-ahead situation this weekend as VU’s next game to start next week is a big Top-10 showdown at Region 24 opponent and No. 9-ranked John A. Logan College Wednesday, Dec. 14 in Carterville. Tip-off time for this game will be 8 p.m. eastern.

“I’m an everyday guy,” Franklin said. “It’s just every day, you have to do everything that you can and that’s what we do. We take the opportunities as they come in front of you and try to take as much advantage of them as you can. This weekend we get an opportunity to go on the road. School’s over. Get focused up and together as a team and go through that experience, which hopefully we will have to do a couple of different times in the postseason. Hopefully we will come out of that more together as a team, more bound as a team. That’s really what I want to take from it.”

“We are going to need to be all about each other in order to go on the road and win next Wednesday,” Franklin added. “This weekend is just the beginning of that process. We get a great opportunity to do it, with not class. We are not going to have any classes going on until January, so now it’s about going to work and trying to get this team together, energized, excited and focused on the goal of getting really good as a basketball player both individually and as a team. When you go on the road like this, there’s a bonding element if your team is good and right that occurs and there is no reason for it to occur for us right now because we know what is in front of us shortly thereafter. So, this is a tremendous chance for us to get together as a team. That’s what I hope we do as a coach and that’s what I will try to push.”

“For the next eight days it doesn’t need to be me griping and pulling,” Franklin said. “It’s needs to be them taking off and sprinting and me guiding. That’s what I want. I think that’s probably what they want, but now they have to do their part. That’s what we will be trying to do and hopefully that happens.”