VINCENNES, Ind. – The No. 11-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers faced another tough challenge Saturday night at the P.E. Complex in their third game of the season against a ranked NJCAA Division II opponent, this time No. 16-ranked Danville Area.

The Trailblazers bounced back after the Jaguars tied the game late in the second half before VU pulled away at the free throw line to close out the 73-65 win on homecoming night.

The No. 11-ranked Trailblazers found themselves in a back-and-forth defensive slugfest early Saturday night, with neither team able to break away.

VU was the first to put together a scoring run, using a 7-0 run to take a 24-18 lead.

Danville Area responded back with a 6-0 scoring run later in the first half to cut the VU lead to just one before VU would tack on another point to their lead before heading into the locker room up 34-32.

Vincennes against looked to separate themselves from the Jaguars in the second half but could not break away as Danville managed to tie the game at 53-all midway through the final period.

Danville Area would keep the game tied at 59-59 before Vincennes used a 6-0 run to grab the lead back.

The Jaguars battled back but were ultimately unable to take the lead back from the Blazers as VU would go on to ice the game away at the free throw line with Vincennes winning their eighth straight game to begin the season 73-65.

“We just grinded it out tonight,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “We couldn’t hit shots from the outside, which was really the only way we were going to open this game up. Danville is solid, they play good defense, they have good ball handling. They are disciplined and have good quickness with those guards. They are going to isolate you and try to get after you one-on-one after their actions. They want to go deeper into the shot clock and they make you go deeper into the shot clock because they grind you down. This wasn’t going to be a game with a bunch of transition buckets. It was a grind with some opportunity breaks.”

“We had opportunities tonight because we had some open shots on the perimeter,” Franklin added. “Especially early in the game, we had all kinds of shots that could have really broken things open and we didn’t hit them. We were five for 21 for the game behind the three-point line. If you told me we were going to shoot that before the game I would have told you that this game was going to be a slog then. It’s going to be close and probably within 10 points. Now if you told me we were going to hit nine or 10 of those 21, then I’d say we could get them between 10 and 20.”

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Lady Trailblazers closed out the second VU Classic weekend of the season Saturday night at the P.E. Complex with a tough defensive battle before VU was able to pull away late to pick up the 83-43 victory over the Pioneers.

The game got off to a slow start early on, with both teams’ defenses winning out in the opening quarter.

The Lady Blazers held the Pioneers to just nine points in the opening quarter as VU jumped out to a six-point lead after the first 10 minutes of play.

VU continued to break the game open, using a 9-2 scoring run early in the second quarter to take a 26-12 lead.

Delta College would look to respond before halftime but could only cut into the deficit by a point as the Lady Blazers held a 32-19 advantage at the midway point.

The Pioneers came out of the locker room firing and quickly cut the VU lead back to single digits before Vincennes regained their footing and built the lead back up to 17 heading into the final quarter of play.

Vincennes looked to completely put the game away early in the fourth quarter, outscoring Delta 20-4 to take a 68-37 lead.

VU would keep the pressure on to the very end as the Blazers defense held Delta to just 43 points as VU picked up their biggest win of the season 83-43.

“We knew from watching the first half that that was not very good basketball,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Harry Meeks said. “We didn’t guard anyone. We pretty much let them do whatever they wanted to do. Offensively we couldn’t score. Just about the whole team had several layup attempts and it was like we couldn’t make any of them.”

“But I knew that once we got someone who would start playing some defense and let the defense create a little offense for us, we would be alright,” Meeks added. “Delta was changing from man-to-man to zone and there were times where it looked like we didn’t know what they were doing and we had some turnovers that we shouldn’t have had. But pretty much in the last third of the game we figured it out and got things going. We started playing really well and got the ball in the middle of the floor. We started making shots. Our defense in the second half was major. We really put some pressure on them and made them make mistakes. We’ve got to take our defense and almost make it an offense.”

VU was led offensively by freshman center Elikya Baseyila (Paris, France) who dominated the low block on her way to her second career double-double with 18 points and 15 rebounds. Baseyila also led the Blazers with three blocks on the night.

UE battles from start to finish

 

DALLAS – Blaise Beauchamp knocked down four 3-pointers to keep the University of Evansville men’s basketball team right in the thick of the battle before a late stretch by the Mustangs saw them win by a score of 55-47 inside Moody Coliseum.

Beauchamp’s top scoring effort of the young season saw record 16 points while Yacine Toumi picked up his second double-double of the campaign as he totaled 11 points and 10 rebounds.  Three SMU players reached double figures with Zhuric Phelps pacing the squad with 15 points.  Zach Nutall scored 13 while Efe Odigie picked up a double-double with 10 points and 11 caroms.

“We had a good gameplan coming in and played pretty well.  I told our guys to stick with it and it will come together,” Aces head coach David Ragland said.  “Once SMU got that lead, they held onto it.  We gave ourselves a chance and climbed back into it.  There are many positives that we can take from today.”

Yacine Toumi got UE on the board before SMU came back to score the next seven points to go up 7-2.  Kenny Strawbridge Jr. ended a drought of six misses in a row and Blaise Beauchamp drained a triple on the fast break to cut the deficit to 9-7.  Beauchamp struck again with 12:44 remaining in the half, draining a shot to tie the game at 9-9.

With the offense knocking down a few shots, the UE defense did the job on the other end.  Evansville forced 11 consecutive missed shots and three turnovers in a span of eight minutes.  Despite the defensive pressure, UE could not muster up the offense on the other end with Strawbridge picking up a field goal to make it an 11-9 contest as the half entered the final eight minutes.

Sekou Kalle provided the energy over the ensuing stretch as he recorded a pair of dunks to put UE up 17-14 with Toumi adding a layup that extended the lead to 19-14 with just over three minutes showing.  Evansville was able to keep the advantage, heading into the break with a 21-17 edge.

After turning the ball over just twice in the first half, five turnovers in the first two minutes of the second half led to a 6-0 run by the Mustangs to put them in front at 23-21.  SMU continued to clamp down on the Aces.  Over the first 6:49, UE missed all six attempts and turned it over six times as they solidified a 30-21 lead.

Marvin Coleman II ended the stretch with a layup with 14:11 showing on the clock and Beauchamp followed with a pair of 3’s that saw Evansville make it a 36-33 game just past the midway point of the final stanza.  Gabe Spinelli went coast-to-coast minutes later to get Evansville within a pair.

A Zhuric Phelps layup with 4:15 left in the contest put SMU up 44-38 but Evansville was not backing down.  It was Beauchamp doing the damage once again as he connected on his fourth triple of the day before draining a pair of free throws to get UE within just one (44-43) as the game entered the final three minutes.  SMU posted the next two field goals as they pulled back out to a 5-point edge.  After pushing the lead to 52-43, the Mustangs would hang on to win by a score of 55-47.

Evansville outrebounded SMU by a 46-42 margin while the Mustangs finished with a slight edge in the final shooting tallies.  The Mustangs completed the game at 32.1% with UE checking in at 28.8%.  UE remains on the road Wednesday for a 6 p.m. CT game at UCF.