Evansville, In.:  Behind a two-goal night from Zachary Bennett and another stellar performance from goaltender Zane Steeves, the Thunderbolts got the upper hand on the Quad City Storm, winning 5-2 on Saturday night at Ford Center.  The Thunderbolts’ next home game will be on Wednesday, December 28^th against the Birmingham Bulls at 7:00pm CT.  For tickets, call (812)422-BOLT (2658), go to EvansvilleThunderbolts.com, or visit the Ford Center Ticket Office.

The first goal of the night came from the Storm, as Matt Ustaski scored with 37 seconds remaining in the first period to give Quad City a 1-0 lead.  The Thunderbolts responded with a strong start to the second period, as Scott Kirton scored at 1:34 from Kyle Thacker and Mike Ferraro to tie the game, before Bennett scored his first goal, unassisted, just a few minutes later at 4:17 to give the Thunderbolts their first lead.  Later in the second period, Mike Ferraro found the back of the net to extend the Thunderbolts lead to 3-1, assisted by Brendan Harrogate and Kirton.

In the third period, Mathieu Cloutier snuck a shot past Storm goaltender Bailey Brkin at 7:03 to make it 4-1 Evansville, assisted by Fredrik Wink and Dillon Hill.  The Storm fought back on a power play chance as Ustaski scored once again at 9:18 to pull the Storm to within a 4-2 deficit.  In response, Bennett scored his second goal of the game a few minutes later at 12:07 from Hill and Aaron Huffnagle to put the game away as the Thunderbolts secured the 5-2 victory to remain tied for 2^ndplace in the SPHL standings.

Bennett scored two goals, Ferraro and Kirton finished with one goal and one assist each, and Cloutier scored one goal.  Hill tallied two assists, while Zane Steeves stopped 35 of 37 shots faced in net for his 8^th win of the season.  These two teams meet again on February 10^th at Ford Center.

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – The Vincennes University Lady Trailblazers continued a long stretch of road games on their schedule Saturday afternoon when VU hit the road to face NJCAA Division II No. 14-ranked Parkland College.

Vincennes fell behind early in the first quarter and were unable to make up the deficit as the Cobras came away with the 71-61 victory.

The host Cobras wasted little time gaining the upper hand Saturday afternoon, opening the game on a 13-2 scoring run and closing out the first 10 minutes of play with a 16-5 advantage over the Lady Blazers.

The Parkland lead continued to grow early in the second quarter to 15 before VU used a 10-2 scoring run to get within seven.

The seven-point margin would hold through the remainder of the first half as the Lady Blazers headed into the locker room trailing 29-22.

Parkland again looked to ride the momentum of the home crowd early in the third quarter after regaining their 15-point lead.

Vincennes immediately answered back to cut the deficit back to eight and took another point off the margin before the end of the period as VU entered the fourth quarter of play trailing 48-41.

The Cobras looked to put the game away late in the fourth quarter after building their third 15-point lead of the contest, but the Lady Blazers wouldn’t go away quietly as VU looked to make another comeback but fell short as Parkland came away with the 71-61 victory.

Vincennes was led offensively by sophomore guards Kennadi Harris (Columbus, Ohio) and Cherrelle Newsom (Indianapolis, Ind.).

Harris got the Blazers going early, scoring eight of her team-high 19 points in the first half, while also grabbing four rebounds and dishing out three assists.

Newsom ended her night with 18 points, 15 of which coming in the second half, while also leading Vincennes with four assists.

Freshman Katrina Litte (Valmiera, Latvia) came off the bench to reach double-figures with 12 points and a pair of assists.

Sophomore Nyre Williams (Indianapolis, Ind.) cleaned the boards for the Lady Blazers all game, ending with a team-high 10 rebounds.

Sophomore Chanice Willis (Champaign, Ill.) put on a defensive show in front of her hometown crowd, leading the Blazers with five steals and four assists, while also grabbing four rebounds.

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.”