No. 8 Blazers use big second half to pick up Region 24 win over Lincoln Trail

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Trailblazers slid five spots in this week’s NJCAA Division I National Rankings after falling at Olney Central Saturday night to No. 8 this week.

The Trailblazers got their first opportunity to bounce back and hopefully resume their climb up the polls Wednesday night against Region 24 rival Lincoln Trail College from Robinson, Ill.

After a slow start the Blazers rode a big 54-point second half to pull away late to claim the 88-55 victory over the Statesmen.

VU looked to be on the right track heading towards a bounce back victory early on Wednesday night, before Lincoln Trail came out with a 12-2 scoring run to take a 17-10 lead midway through the opening half of play.

The Statesmen lead held at 19-12 before VU battled back with an 11-2 scoring run of their own to take a 23-21 lead, a lead they would not surrender for the rest of the night.

VU closed out the opening half of play strong with another 11-2 scoring run to take a 34-25 lead into the locker room break.

The Vincennes lead only continued to grow in the second half, using a 12-2 scoring run to take a 59-34 lead midway through the second half.

The Blazers would look to put the game away late with a 9-0 scoring run to take a 76-45 lead and ended the game by scoring the final six points to close out a strong 88-55 victory over the Statesmen.

“We picked up the intensity with about 11 or 12 minutes to go in the first half,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “Defensively we picked it up. We sent Ryan into the game. Ryan hit a couple of shots on the inside-out because we could get them any time we wanted because they were really collapsing on us. He hit a couple and really got us going on the offensive end. Then we picked up the intensity defensively and really, they didn’t score very many points from that point on.”

“It still took us a little while to get a rhythm,” Franklin added. “In the second half I thought we played with more of a balance and a rhythm and you look at the stats sheet and it reflected it. But one thing throughout the game, even when we were missing shots, we only ended up with four turnovers. I thought we threw up some bad shots, one-legged and stuck the ball in so they could block our shot. I don’t know why we like doing that, but we seem to enjoy it. But we didn’t turn it over and it’s amazing when you don’t turn it over and we’re pretty good at getting on the offensive glass, we end up with 23 of those. If we don’t turn it over and we actually move the ball and then we get up a shot, we’ve got a really good chance of getting up another one.”

“I know those are simple things but they are important things,” Franklin said. “Four turnovers gave us a chance when we were sputtering a little bit. Our offensive rebounding gave us a chance when we were sputtering a little bit. Then as the game wore on, we started to get a more solid base on our shots and got settled in. Hopefully we can grow from that and keep doing it.”

The Trailblazers were led offensively by sophomore Kris King who found his shooting stroke early, connecting on a pair of first half threes and recording 12 of his game-high 19 points in the opening 20 minutes of play.