No. 6 Trailblazers close out tough Region 24 battle with Lake Land College

VINCENNES, Ind. – The No. 6-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers looked to get back on track Saturday afternoon at the P.E. Complex with another Region 24 matchup, this time against Lake Land College.

Vincennes found themselves in a back-and-forth battle all game before coming away with a five-point 80-75 victory over the Lakers.

The back-and-forth game began early with the two teams trading baskets before the Lakers struck first with an 8-0 scoring run to take a 25-16 lead.

Vincennes would rally back late in the first half with a Ryan Oliver three to tie the game with four minutes to go and a Michael Osei-Bonsu putback to cap off a 10-0 VU run.

The Trailblazers would continue to add to close out the first half, outscoring the Lakers 12-4 to take a 41-33 lead into the locker room at the break.

Coming out of the halftime break the Trailblazers continued to add to their lead, building their largest lead of the game at 50-39.

Lake Land came back firing however, using a 14-3 scoring run to tie the game at 53-53.

The game would stay close, within one possession until VU used another 10-0 scoring run to build a nine-point advantage.

The Lakers again looked to battle back with a late comeback but could only get within three before the Blazers closed the game out at the free throw line to pick up the 80-75 victory.

“We are still learning and we are still figuring it out,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “We are still learning how to work and be disciplined. Some of those things showed up tonight where we haven’t been as much as we should. But I thought our effort tonight, for the most part, was good.”

“I didn’t like how alert we were in the lane in the second half,” Franklin added. “We lost those loose ball rebounds and we should have had five or six more stops but they ended up with layups, so we’ve got to do better there. I thought our effort was pretty good. It’s just the beginning stages of really trying to turn into the team that we need to be. That involves figuring out who are going to be our guys. We’ve figured out that we have to work harder and be more about it and sometimes that’s not easy. Some guys get a little too wired up doing it. Some guys haven’t done it yet, so we are still in that stage. But I thought that there were steps forward tonight.”

“Lake Land is obviously a problem,” Franklin said. “They are going to be a problem for everybody and they’ve been a problem for everybody they’ve played. They are so big and they have the Close kid who can really shoot it. I thought we did a good job of chasing him tonight. Cox is a big three-man that can do things. They are going to attack you and put pressure on you. They made it hard, they competed, they are big and strong at every position. Camacho is a big guy at the point guard, Cox is a big three, both of their big guys are obviously big. They threw a 1-3-1 at us that we knew was coming. We had opportunities that I think as we get more disciplined and go back and work on things that were there that we could have done.”