No. 6 Trailblazers survive road test at Olney Central

OLNEY, Ill. – The No. 6-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers faced another tough Region 24 test Saturday night and came away from Olney with a 73-67 win over Olney Central.

The Trailblazers jumped out to a big lead early, building a seven-point, 12-5 advantage.

Olney Central would rally back before an 8-0 Vincennes run extended the lead to 10.

VU would hold steady as the Trailblazers took a 38-27 lead into the locker room at the halftime break.

Olney Central began to claw their way back into the game before using an 11-0 scoring run to take their first lead of the game midway through the second half.

VU would grab the lead back to six points before the Blue Knights responded back on their home floor to take the lead back with a 7-0 run.

Vincennes looked to regain control of the game with a 9-0 scoring run capped off by back-to-back threes from sophomore Caleb Johnson (N. Preston, Nova Scotia) and freshman Kris King (Washington, D.C.) to give the Blazers a 67-59 lead.

Olney Central would look for another comeback but were only able to get within three points of the VU lead as Vincennes capped off their third Region 24 victory and 12th win in a row by the final score 73-67.

“We had enough periods of the game where we were solid to win tonight,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “And we had enough periods where we weren’t solid to keep it in doubt. Olney Central has got a good ball club. They are going to beat a lot of teams if they stay together, keep working and stay healthy, like all of us. That was a quality win tonight.”

“They were ready for us,” Franklin added. “Olney Central came into this game feeling good and they had an idea of what they wanted to do, which was play physical. They got really physical, which is great, we want to do that. That’s no problem. But we had to handle some things. At times we did that okay and there were times when we didn’t. That’s why the game was in doubt and it was also why we pulled away and won it. We locked in enough at certain times to get it done. That’s the bottom line.”