Five double figure scorers lead No. 21 Trailblazers past D-II No. 20 Henry Ford

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University Trailblazer men’s basketball team slid down three spots earlier today in the first NJCAA Division I National Rankings for the 2024-25 regular season, checking in at No. 21.

The Trailblazers got another opportunity to add another good win to their resume Tuesday night as Vincennes hosted NJCAA Division II No. 20 ranked Henry Ford College.

Vincennes overcame a slow start and held off a late push by the Hawks to secure an 88-77 victory over Henry Ford inside the Physical Education Complex.

VU got off to a slow start Tuesday evening, with Henry Ford firing out of the gates with a 7-0 scoring run and a 6-0 scoring run to take an early 25-16 advantage.

Vincennes would answer back however, outscoring the Hawks 13-2 to regain the lead at 29-27 with five minutes to play in the first half.

The Trailblazers would grow this lead before halftime, scoring the final four points of the opening half to take a 38-32 lead into the locker room break.

Vincennes looked to take their game up another level early in the second half, getting the home crowd behind them by opening the second half by outscoring Henry Ford 21-6 to take a 59-38 lead.

Henry Ford would rally back and cut the VU lead back down to 11 and late in the second half cut the deficit back to single digits at 77-69.

But the Trailblazers were able to get key shots down the stretch and seal the game at the free throw line as Vincennes came away with the 88-77 victory over Henry Ford College.

“The win itself is good and Henry Ford is a good ball club,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “Henry Ford is explosive the way that they play and they are tough because they are going to spread you out and attack it. But I’m not pleased tonight. Tonight, I felt like, was a step backwards. I thought we made a step forward this past weekend. I thought we were better and growing and tonight I didn’t see us doing the things that we talk about.”

“It was just mistake after mistake out there from us not doing what we said,” Franklin added. “Here’s what we tell you and how to do it and we’re doing something else. That can’t be the case. I’ve got to do a better job. I don’t know if I haven’t been clear enough. I try to be clear but maybe I haven’t been clear enough. Maybe I’ve been a little too sweet, I don’t know. It’s pretty simple and basic things that we are talking about that weren’t done tonight and when they weren’t done the way we want them to, we weren’t successful.”

“Anytime we make any attempt to do what we are supposed to, we’re successful,” Franklin said. “It’s really crazy that you go through this. But we’ve gone through this long enough that we’re not going to be perfect, there’s a million things that our guys are not going to know and we’re developing. That’s fine. And we might not even do it well when we’re doing what we’re supposed to. We hope we do but we have to make the attempt to do it the way that we say. And when we don’t, that’s not okay.”

“Maybe these guys are new and they are not used to being coached and coach says here’s what I want and you do it,” Franklin added. “I’m not sure. But that’s going to change, I can tell you that. So I’m a little bothered by that right now. But it’s a good win in terms of beating Henry Ford and you can see that we have some guys that can do some things. The problem is, we waste too much time doing things that we’re not supposed to be doing instead of putting two hours of basketball together where we are all fighting like heck to do the right thing. If we did that then we’d be alright. But we’ll see if we can’t get that turned around right now.”

VU offensively was led by sophomore Michael Cooper (Minneapolis, Minn.) who just missed out on another double-double, finishing his night with 20 points and nine rebounds.

Freshman Dayton Williams (Louisville, Ky.) got the Trailblazer offense going early with 12 of his 19 points coming in the second half, as he finished out a double-double with 10 rebounds and six assists.

Sophomore and 2024 NJCAA All-American Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) helped close out the victory at the free throw line, connecting on 10 of 14 from the foul line to finish his night with 18 points, six rebounds and five assists.

Freshman Jalen Calloway (Chicago, Ill.) closed out his game with 15 points and seven rebounds, including hitting two of three shots from three-point range.

Freshman Kenaz Ochogwu (E. Providence, R.I.) was the fifth VU scorer in double figures Tuesday night, finishing the game with 10 points and five rebounds.

“I think Dayton Williams gave us a good effort,” Franklin said. “He’s been giving us a good effort all the time. He’s young and learning and he’s still able to be a good player while he’s young and learning. So that’s fine and we can live with that.”

“I thought Kenaz gives us good minutes,” Franklin added. “He’s raw but he’s become our best center. I don’t think there’s any question right now. It’s not that guys get taken out and don’t play as much, it’s not personal, you’ve got to play better. He’s playing better and some of the guys that are going to lose their time, they are not trying to do what we tell them. They are doing something else. So I don’t understand. You’re not having a whole lot of success the other way and now he’s playing better. It’s not complicated and he’s emerging. He’s raw, he’s talented and he’s a good kid. You’re trying to form him on the fly here but he’s helping us, there’s no question.”

“Jalen Calloway is kind of the same way,” Franklin said. “Same way, different position. Learning, raw, we’ve had to throw him out there to the wolves because he’s our best option. If you look over there, he’s our best player right now at that spot. We start to play good when he starts to play good and we wane when he doesn’t. Because it’s so key when he’s giving us something and that was a spot in the jamborees where we didn’t really get much. When he gets going and locked in and doing what we want, then he’s pretty good and we’re pretty good.”

“Those guys are learning and we’ve got to get them across the board,” Franklin added. “But I thought, they are not going to be perfect, it’s going to be up and down all around, but I thought those kids did a pretty good job.”

“I thought Christian Andrews had times when he’s playing well” Franklin said. “But then he starts letting those guys back him down and get right by the rim. There’s really not much that I can do about it. They’ve got the floor spread and they are going to go at you. He’ll learn if he wants to survive, he’ll learn to sit down and fight earlier and dig them off and dig them away because he can’t just back up until they get around the rim. But he’s a competitor. He’ll figure it out. But he did good things in stretches tonight. I thought at the end of the first half, we had him in there and that was a good run for us. Then there was a run in the second half that was pretty good when he was out there until they just started going at him. He’s going to learn to handle presses better. He’s got to learn that because of his size, he has to learn how to be crafty about what he’s doing when they get up and your vision gets taken away. Those are adjustments that he will have to make but he’s a freshmen, so we’re learning on the fly.”

“Michael is kind of an up and down kind of thing,” Franklin added. “He’s been defensive rebounding for us all year. He did again tonight and has been very key with that. He can hit shots, so he can open the floor up at the four and if he can get on the block where his left shoulder is baseline, he sets it up and turns back, he’s pretty good. But we’ve got to get him in those spots. Defensively he’s really got to work at a continuation. He’s got to be live because he’s not the quickest guy and he’s really going to have to work at it. He can’t relax. We’re constantly pushing these guys because we are on the fly right now. It was like when we were starting to put them away and his guy hit two threes in a row. He’s just late.”

“I kind of know this because I’ve been here and I’ve won a lot,” Franklin said. “You know you can see it and you’re begging for it from the sidelines and we’ve got to get less of that. Because they’ve got to start getting in tune with what we’re seeing and what we’re doing. That’s when we’ll get good. We get a little soft on finishes. We’re young and this is a tough game. You’ve got to grit your teeth and bend those elbows. You’ve got to protect with your body and go up with force and through. You’ve got to keep those eyes concentrated all the way through the action. We wane with that and that little bit in the second half where they started to come back on us, it was that. We didn’t want to work hard enough at moving our feet at one end and at the other we were just getting a little sloppy. The press didn’t really bother us, we could get whatever we wanted but we’d get sloppy. Some of that’s new, it’s not always young. But we try to tell them how to do this and now they’ve got to hear me because we can eliminate most of those and they can turn into positives.”

“Lebron ends up with 18 points,” Franklin added. “He’s got to protect the ball better. He’s got to get in here until he starts making his shots. Everything now is dive and sticking my head in at the basket. He’s got to have more trust in his pull up jump shot and we’ve got to get him where he’s seeing the floor better. There are things where the play is there and he’s trying the other play. So he’s probably pressing a little bit right now. But he’s got to stop this ball. We’ve got to do it the way that we teach it. If we do it the way that we teach it with the intensity level, we’ve been pretty alright over the years. Amari Allen had a good night but he wouldn’t have had that good of a night if we were attempting to do what we say. He might make some plays but he would not have had that night and that’s where the frustration is. You’ve got to make that competitive attempt to do what we are telling them. But that’s early in the year. That’s just the way that it goes. But I was disappointed in that some tonight because we did move forward and we’re finding some people. But the total buy in to the way that we teach and what we teach has got to get there and it’s got to be there under fire when the game is going on and that’s where you find real discipline and we’ve got to find real discipline and toughness. We’ve got good guys but they’ve got to become tough, disciplined guys if we are going to have the success that we all want to. Hopefully in the next two or three days we realize that and I’ll try to help them realize that.”

The Trailblazers will look to keep this early season momentum going when VU returns to the P.E. Complex floor Saturday, Nov. 16 when Vincennes hosts Malcolm X College from Chicago, Ill. at 3 p.m. eastern on Hurricane Relief Night at the Physical Education Complex.

Fans can get free admission into the VU men’s and women’s doubleheader Saturday, Nov. 16 with a donation of paper towels or toilet paper. Donations will go to support those still in need from the effects of Hurricane Helene.

“I haven’t watched Malcolm X a lot,” Franklin said. “I know they are having a good year. I know they beat Olney and they have put up a large amount of points. I know their coach does a really good job with them. We’ve played them the last couple of years and I think he does a good job. They are probably going to be 4-0 or 5-0 when they come in here Saturday, knowing that they have notched a good win over Olney, so they will be excited.”

“They’ve got a couple of good players that are going to put up some points,” Franklin added. “They will be a problem and it will be like it is for all of these teams. It will be a Super Bowl game and they will be in here ready to go. We’re going to have to deal with a little bit of an odd afternoon tip time and hopefully the fans get out here for a 3 p.m. game.”

“Hopefully in these next three days, our guy’s lock in,” Franklin said. “We’re not overloading them. It’s just doing what we want the way that we want it. There’s a process and it’s always been very organized and it was there tonight. There’s a way that we do things and I want to see Saturday, them acting like they know that way and that they are all about that way and they are going to win or lose intently trying to do it that way. That’s what Saturday will be about.”

“Malcolm X will be a good opponent,” Franklin added. “Then Kankakee right after that. Then Moberly right after that. Henry Ford was dangerous tonight. We’re having to learn on the fly and you get thrown out here against real opponents and you see what happens. Tonight, I don’t know if our focus wasn’t right. We’ve had a hard time with back-to-back games. It’s not really physical, it’s more mental and the toughness of knowing that I’ve got to continue doing this right thing intently over and over again. For us it’s been a little bit of a battle. But we expect that. It’s just time now. It’s not time to be great. It’s not time to be perfect. But it’s time to see total buy-in to intently doing what we preach and teach. It is what it is and it’s time for me to get a little hard edged with it. That’s where it is and it’s time to find out who wants to buy in.”

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (88): Bryan Akanmu 1-6 0-0 2, Michael Cooper 7-12 5-6 20, Jalen Calloway 5-9 3-4 15, Lebron Thomas 4-14 10-14 18, Dayton Williams 8-15 1-3 19, Christian Andrews 1-4 0-0 2, Taveon Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Travelle Bryson 1-1 0-0 2, Kenaz Ochogwu 5-6 0-0 10, Hussein Elmaraghy 0-1 0-0 0, Team 32-69 19-27 88.

Henry Ford – 32   45 – 77

VU (4-1) – 38   50 – 88

Three-point goals: VU 5 (Calloway 2, Williams 2, Cooper). Rebounds: VU 47 (Williams 10). Assists: VU 24 (Williams 6, Andrews 6). Steals: VU 2 (Williams, Andrews). Blocked Shots: VU 4 (Cooper, Williams, Andrews, Bryson). Turnovers: VU 15. Personal Fouls: VU 17. Fouled out: None.