VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Lady Trailblazers hosted No. 4-ranked Three Rivers College Monday night with the Lady Blazers looking to get some payback from an 82-67 loss to the Lady Raiders earlier this year.

Vincennes held their own against the top-ranked Raiders in the first period, with Vincennes holding a 10-8 lead late in the first period before Three Rivers began a 9-0 scoring run that stretched into the second quarter to take a seven-point lead.

Three Rivers would continue to build on this lead throughout the second quarter, with their largest lead of the first half being 14 before Vincennes closed the gap to 30-18 at the break.

The two teams went shot-for-shot in the third quarter until freshman Cherrelle Newsom (Indianapolis, Ind.) began a barrage of three-point baskets to cut the deficit back down to just 10 points.

Newsom would score 12 of VU’s 21 third quarter points on four made shots from behind the arc.

VU would look to build on this momentum in the fourth quarter, but Three Rivers began to expand their lead again.

The Lady Raiders led by as many as 20 early in the fourth quarter, before Vincennes rallied late to cut the deficit to the eventual 15-point margin as Three Rivers came away with the 72-57 win.

“Three Rivers made a lot of shots, we turned the ball over early and gave them easy shots and I think Three Rivers won the game in the first eight minutes because we played uphill the rest of the game,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Harry Meeks said. “I believe that if you can win the first five minutes and the last five minutes of both halves you are going to have a winning team. Today we didn’t fair too well going by that.”

“We started off shooting air balls and we let them rush us into taking bad shots,” Meeks added. “There is no doubt that Three Rivers plays a good zone, but our problem was we didn’t run our zone offense and we didn’t do anything that would help us. This is a good learning point for us that we have to be more precise when we start the game and be more precise at the end of the game. Where we can handle the ball and get the shots that we’re supposed to get and don’t get rushed and have to make a bunch of three’s to get back into the game.”

“We just have to go to work, I told our team that I could scream and yell, but that’s not going to help anything. That’s not going to help us win the next game. I don’t want to dwell on anything that we can’t do something about. I want to look forward and go after Lincoln Trail Wednesday night. I think if we do that, we are eventually going to be where I want this team to be. We did compete with Three Rivers tonight and I think by the end of the season, we may have another two to three losses, but we will be able to play against them and do a better job than what we did tonight.”

Vincennes was led offensively by Cherrelle Newsom who finished with a game-high 23 points, with seven made three-pointers on the night. Newsom also added three assists and a pair of rebounds to her totals.

Sophomore Laila Grant (Derwood, Md.) also finishing with double-digits in the score column, ending with 13 points, five rebounds and four assists.

Sophomore Macy Michels (Teutopolis, Ill.) nearly came away with a double-double, ending her night with eight points and seven rebounds.

Sophomore Nina Blade (Milwaukee, Wis.) led the Blazers with eight rebounds and freshman Trinitee Harris (Elkhart, Ind.) finished with a team-high five steals as well as four rebounds and three assists.

Freshman Day’Lynn Thornton (Lafayette, Ind.) provided the scoring for the Blazers off the bench, ending with seven points on the game.

“I thought Cherrelle was just awesome shooting the ball,” Meeks said. “She can play. She does a really good job for us and I’m glad she’s on our side. We’ve just got to get Cherrelle to play like she did in the third quarter the whole game.”

“I thought Macy did a good job rebounding for us, but Macy is going to have to get stronger and block out with a little more authority,” Meeks added. “I don’t know where we would be without Macy, she’s done a really good job for us and I’m happy to coach her.”

“Laila had a slow start. She came out and played better in the second half. We would not be as good of a basketball team as we are if we didn’t have Laila on our team. I think the zone tonight gave her some problems. Trinitee did a good job handling the ball for us. Nina got hit in the eye and still did a good job for us getting after it and getting eight rebounds.”

“I can’t fault the effort of every one of these girls,” Meeks said. “They all gave good effort and that’s what I’m looking for and I thought we competed pretty well tonight.”

VU will look to start their Region 24 schedule on a high-note Wednesday night when Vincennes hosts Lincoln Trail College from Robinson, Ill. Wednesday, Dec. 1 at the P.E. Complex. This game will be the first half of a men’s-women’s double-header, with the tip-off of the women’s game set for 5 p.m. eastern.

“We have played a good schedule to get ready for our Region 24 schedule this year,” Meeks said. “We have played a really tough schedule and I think that is going to help our team. We have to remember to keep playing hard. We’ve got some things that we’re going to work on to help us speed the game up a little more and we’re going to work on playing a little better defense too.”

“I wasn’t pleased with how we played defensively tonight, both in the zone and man-to-man,” Meeks added. “We’re going to have to put more pressure on the ball and we’ve got to pay more attention to detail. We’ve got some things to learn and I’m sure we will learn them in the next week or two. I look forward to coaching this team and I look forward to them winning a bunch of games this year.”

Smith reached double figures in three out of four games

 ST LOUIS – Averaging 13.5 points in four games while setting his career mark with 24 points, Antoine Smith Jr. was recognized as the Missouri Valley Conference Newcomer of the Week on Monday.

Smith averaged just 2.6 points per game over the first five games of the season, but in a 4-game week, he turned the corner to finish with an average of 13.5 points per game.  His shooting was off the charts, hitting 59.4% of his field goal attempts, 11 out of 21 3-pointers (52.4%) and 81.8% from the line.  Smith played an average of 36.2 minutes while chipping in 2.5 rebounds per game and a total of four assists.

He had one of the most efficient games that you will ever see to open the week against Rice.  Smith was a perfect 9-of-9 from the floor and 6-for-6 from long range on his way to a career-high 24 points.  In 40 minutes of work, he hauled in three rebounds while adding a steal.  After finishing with 4 points and 3 caroms against Vermont, Smith had another nice game when the Aces squared off against Akron.  He tallied 16 points while hitting 3 of his 6 long range tries.  He capped the week off with 10 points, 2 assists and 2 boards in Sunday’s road win at Eastern Illinois.

Entering Wednesday’s MVC opener, Smith checks in with an average of 7.4 PPG while shooting 51.1% from the field.