No. 21 Trailblazers unable to overcome slow start in defensive battle

VINCENNES, Ind. – The No. 21-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers got off to a tough start Saturday afternoon against the Greyhounds of Moberly Area Community College inside the Physical Education Complex.

Vincennes would eventually get back on track but were unable to overcome the early deficit as the Trailblazers fell to Moberly Area by the final score of 63-51.

It was a tough start to the day by the Trailblazers with Moberly Area coming out of the gates firing to build an early 22-3 lead.

Vincennes would rebound and battle back with a 14-2 scoring run to get back within seven and finished the opening half trailing by eight at 33-25.

VU looked to grab the early momentum in the second half, opening the final 20 minute period with six straight point to cut the Greyhound lead to 33-31 before Moberly Area capitalized on eight straight on their end to get the lead back to 10.

The Trailblazers continued to battle and were again able to eat into the Moberly lead late with a series of threes to cut the deficit to 55-51 but were ultimately unable to completely erase the deficit as Moberly Area closed out the 63-51 victory over the Trailblazers.

“I didn’t think we competed very well at all to start the game,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “We let them be the aggressor and we talked about it all week, so I don’t know how we could have emphasized that more. I’ll do better. But I really don’t know how I could emphasize more what this game was going to be and how they were going to play. They went exactly on the script of how I thought they would play and we just didn’t come out with anybody that was going to make any intensity early.”

“After that, on the defensive end, we were fine,” Franklin added. “There are a lot of things that we could do better but they ended up shooting 37 percent and probably shot in the low 30’s from that early run on. We out rebounded the heck out of them. We gave up one offensive rebound and there were a lot of opportunities. We outrebounded them 32 to 1 on their shots and they didn’t get very many second shots. It might be a little off but it’s not by much.”

“If you hold somebody on your home floor to 37 percent shooting, 27 percent from three and you outrebound them by 15, you should win the basketball game and you should win solidly,” Franklin said. “And those numbers are even worse for them after you get past the start of the game. If you take out the first seven or eight minutes, from that point on we had plenty of opportunities.”

Vincennes was led offensively by sophomore and 2024 NJCAA All-American Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) who closed out his night with 19 points and seven rebounds.

Freshman Jalen Calloway (Chicago, Ill.) got the Blazers offense going early and finished with 11 points, eight rebounds and a team-high three assists.

Freshman Dayton Williams was the third VU scorer in double figures, securing his second career double-double with 11 points and 12 rebounds.

Sophomore Michael Cooper (Minneapolis, Minn.) also had a big game on the boards, finishing just shy of another double-double with eight points and eight rebounds.

“They pressed, they trapped and they scrambled defensively,” Franklin added. “We had guys try to get in the high post, low post, get it swung. We tried to play with Michael being a stretch guys. So we had four guys with the floor stretched now you look to move it and find gaps. But honestly, the problem from there is that it comes down to being a basketball player making basketball plays. Because I can’t run them a set to get a layup against a zone. There are things that we will do but it was spread, it’s hit gaps, move the ball, read through the middle of the floor, break it down, get to the backsides and then make the play. We couldn’t do that.”

“I’ve got to do better obviously,” Franklin said. “But we’ve got to have someone who is going to step up and make plays. Not just talking about scoring. Who can hit a gap and make a clean pass. Draw in two defenders against a zone and make a pass, hit one more gap and then all of a sudden somebody is going to be wide open on the backside. You’ve got to be able to hit a couple of gaps sometimes against a zone and it was no different today because they were really running and overloading it and attacking it.”

“We put the five man at the high post to begin the second half but we didn’t deliver the ball to them there in the middle,” Franklin added. “And when we did, they went and did what they are not supposed to which is dribble and put your head down instead of turning and hitting the shot or turning and kicking it back out on some of the inside-out parts of it. Again it’s my fault because those are things that we go over and talk about.”

“But we had something today that I don’t think has ever happened,” Franklin said. “We had zero points from the low block. I’ve never seen it before. Anybody that knows us, we emphasize trying to get the ball in there and posting and we didn’t change that tonight. We had it spread out with the other four so we had one guy in there and if you cover that well, then there has to be someone in there that can go to work but that didn’t happen.”

“So we’ve got to find a way to do that,” Franklin added. “I’ve got to coach better because if you bring a Moberly in here and hold them to 37 percent shooting, plus 15 rebound margin and they shoot in the 20s from the three-point line, you’ve got to win the ball game. But one thing about offense is that a lot of times it’s about players. It’s the players making plays. Whether it’s to set somebody else up for a play or actually finishing the play, it’s making plays and sometimes if that doesn’t happen it can get pretty frustrating.  Today, I didn’t do a good enough job of getting guys in position to make play, I guess. But the bottom line is, we didn’t make enough plays. You can’t come out here and shoot 19 for 62 on your home floor.”

The Trailblazers will look to reset and rebound as VU prepares to play their first game away from the home gym Sunday, Dec. 1 when Vincennes heads to Olney Central College to take part in the Olney Central Classic.

Vincennes will get set to take on Mineral Area College at Olney Central College. Tip-off time for that game is set for 1 p.m. eastern.

“I’ll do the best I can to get them ready for the next one,” Franklin said. “I wasn’t really confused today. But the fact is that at some point I also wasn’t confused about the fact that we are not going to score. They were making us pass and catch and move the ball. You’ve got read middle and swing the ball and the plays will be there if you make a good basketball play. Somehow, I’ve got to be able to get us to do that in a week. I’ve got three perimeter guys out there and a four who is supposed to be a stretch type of guy. Structurally, there’s not many things that you can do there is you don’t have somebody that wants the ball inside or can hurt them in the high post.”

“I’ve got to get us more crisp and give us a better chance to do things,” Franklin added. “But at some point, we’ve got to find guys, when that happens, that are going to make plays. We didn’t make plays in the second half against Columbia State in a similar situation and we didn’t make plays today against Moberly in those situations. We’ve made plays in the other ones. So when somebody wants to push on you and hit you in the mouth a little bit, you’ve got to be able to make plays too. So we’ve got to find a way to get that to happen and we’ve got to find the people who can do that. If we don’t find the right people who can do that then we will be in that same situation.”

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (51): Bryan Akanmu 0-3 0-0 0, Michael Cooper 3-10 1-2 8, Jalen Calloway 5-15 0-0 11, Lebron Thomas 6-16 4-5 19, Dayton Williams 4-13 1-2 11, Christian Andrews 1-4 0-1 2, Meyoh Swansey 0-0 0-0 0, Kenaz Ochogwu 0-1 0-0 0, Team 19-62 6-10 51.

Moberly Area – 33   30 – 63

VU (6-2) – 25   26 – 51

Three-point goals: VU 7 (Thomas 3, Williams 2, Coper, Calloway). Rebounds: VU 45 (Williams 12). Assists: VU 10 (Calloway 3). Steals: VU 3 (Cooper, Williams, Andrews). Blocked Shots: VU 6 (Calloway 2, Williams 2). Turnovers: VU 17. Personal Fouls: VU 16. Fouled out: Akanmu.

Cold third quarter trips up Aces women’s basketball at Lipscomb

Men’s basketball hosts Campbell on Sunday afternoon

Tip set for 3 p.m. 

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Two days after earning a 98-81 win over Green Bay, the University of Evansville men’s basketball team will be back at the Ford Center on Sunday to host Campbell at 3 p.m.  ESPN+ and the Purple Aces Radio Network will have the broadcast.

Last Time Out

– Evansville never gave up the lead on Friday, going up by as many as 33 points before taking the win by 17

– Cam Haffner set a new scoring high with 27 points, hitting 10 of his 16 attempts

– Converting 8 of his 9 field goal tries, Josh Hughes finished with 19, tying his season mark

– Tanner Cuff tied his season high with 15 while Gabriel Pozzato and Tayshawn Comer finished with 13 and 11, respectively

Another Career Night

– In his second season with the Purple Aces, Cam Haffner continues to raise the bar

– In the win over Green Bay, he set career highs in points (27), field goals (10) and attempts (16); he also tied his top collegiate mark of 9 rebounds

– The effort surpassed his previous high of 23 points set just six days earlier against Radford

– Haffner was 8-of-12 from the field and knocked down six of his 10 3-point tries

– He is second on the team and 7th in the MVC with his average of 15.2 PPG

Top Performance       

– Hauling in a career-high 8 rebounds while scoring a season-high 9 points, Connor Turnbull had his best game of the season in the victory over Green Bay

– He added another block and ranks 8th in the MVC with 1.00 per contest

– Turnbull had a solid game versus Brescia, posting 7 points, 4 boards and 3 blocks

– Through six games, he has posted 5.2 PPG and 2.5 RPG while seeing just over 15 minutes of work per game

Home Cooking

– Home court advantage has a new meaning this season for Josh Hughes; in three games at the Ford Center, Hughes is averaging 15 PPG while shooting 73.9% (17-23)

– On the road, Hughes is averaging 3.7 PPG while shooting just 14.3%

– Converting 8 of his 9 attempts in the win over the Phoenix, Hughes tied his season mark with nine points

– Against Radford, Hughes connected on 6 of his 11 attempts and four triples on his way to 19 points

Scouting the Opponent

– Campbell enters Sunday’s contest with a 3-3 record with wins coming over Pfeiffer, Newberry and Navy

– On Friday, the Fighting Camels fell by a final of 104-60 at Ohio State

– Jasin Sinani leads the way for Campbell with an average of 11.3 points per game; he also paces the team with his average of 5.0 rebounds

– Bragi Gudmundsson and Terren Frank hold averages of 9.8 and 9.3 PPG, respectively

– Nolan Dorsey checks in with 8.2 PPG and leads the team with nine triples while shooting 45.0% from outside

THUNDERBOLTS SHUT DOWN STORM IN 3-1 ROAD VICTORY

Haffner resets career scoring high in win over Green Bay

Aces rebound with 98-81 win 

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Cam Haffner reset his single-game scoring high once again, recording 27 points on Friday night as the University of Evansville men’s basketball team took down Green Bay by a final score of 98-81 at the Ford Center.

Haffner was 10-of-16 from the field while draining five triples. He hauled in a game-high nine rebounds, tying his career mark from his freshman season at Eastern Illinois.  Four others reached double figures including Josh Hughes, who tied his season mark of 19.  Tanner Cuff recorded 15 while Gabriel Pozzato and Tayshawn Comer finished with 13 and 11, respectively.

“I’m proud of our guys for how they came out and played tonight.  We put together a full 40 minutes and showed what we are capable of,” UE head coach David Ragland exclaimed.  “We showed improvement in each facet of the game and are excited to be back at the Ford Center on Sunday.”

Converting 63.6% of its attempts in the first half, the Purple Aces led by as many as 18 points.  Five minutes into the contest, Cam Haffner drained a triple to put UE on top at 11-4.  Following a basket by Green Bay, Evansville put forth its best sequence of the half.

Haffner’s 3-pointer was the first of six consecutive field goal makes for UE as the Aces went on a 12-0 run to open a 23-6 lead at the 11:22 mark.  Tayshawn Comer had a 3-pointer during the rally while Gabriel Pozzato added a pair of baskets.

After the Phoenix cut the gap to 25-15, Haffner and Josh Hughes combined to score the next 13 UE points to push the lead to 38-20 inside of the 5-minute mark.  Green Bay would hit a late three to cut the deficit to 15 at the break.  Haffner (14) and Hughes (11) both reached double figures in the opening 20 minutes.

Out of the half, Haffner picked up right where he left off, connecting from downtown for the fourth time.  Four minutes in, Connor Turnbull drained a 3-pointer while Haffner followed with a pair of free throws to extend the advantage to 20 points for the first time at 56-36.  It was all Aces from there as the lead reached as many as 33 points before the final deficit of 17.

Leading the Phoenix was Anthony Roy who scored 31 points.  As a team, UE shot 59.7% while holding Green Bay to 40.3%.  UE had its best rebounding effort of the year, finishing with a dominating 43-22 edge on the glass.  Cuff led the team with six assists as UE accumulated a total of 19.

On Sunday, the Aces are back at the Ford Center for a 3 p.m. game against Campbell.