CARTERVILLE, Ill. – The No. 4-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers hit the road Saturday afternoon for another tough Region 24 matchup against the defending NJCAA Division I National Champion John A. Logan Volunteers.

The Trailblazers looked to be rolling towards another victory midway through the second half holding a 57-42 lead over the Vols, before the Volunteers turned it on late and rode the crowd’s momentum to a 72-71 overtime victory over the Blazers.

VU looked to have possibly turned a corner early on Saturday afternoon against the Volunteers, opening the game by scoring nine of the first 12 points to hold an early six point lead.

The Volunteers responded back with a 10-2 scoring run to take their first lead of the game at 15-13.

The lead would continue to flip throughout the first half, with seven lead changes in the first half alone before the Blazers carried a five point lead into the locker room break.

After Vincennes continued to extend their lead in the second half to eight, the Volunteers answered back to cut the VU lead down to one at 39-38.

The Trailblazers would then appear to be on the brink of putting the game away after a 14-2 scoring run gave Vincennes a 57-42 lead midway through the second half.

It was at this point where the Volunteers switched to a zone defense which the Trailblazers struggled to handle.

John A. Logan used a 9-0 scoring run to cut the VU lead down to six and slowly chipped away before a pair of free throws game the Volunteers their first lead since 26-25 with just 3.3 seconds remaining on the clock.

The Trailblazers called timeout to set up a last second shot at the buzzer and were able to find an opening for sophomore Ryan Oliver (Antioch, Tenn.) to put in a layup to even the score at 63-63 at the buzzer and send the game into overtime.

The Volunteers took the early lead in overtime after scoring the first basket of the period, before the two teams began trading baskets.

VU would get back within striking distance after cutting the lead down to one with just under a minute remaining.

After a pair of free throw misses by the Volunteers, Vincennes again raced down the floor looking for another last second buzzer beater but were unable to convert as the Blazers fell in overtime to the Volunteers 72-71.

“I’m very disappointed,” VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. “I’m disappointed in myself that I have not been able to find a way to get these guys to get focused and hard-edged in these moments. Because that’s what goes on. Then we quit functioning and we quit functioning all of the plays and then we start looking around and making excuses. And that’s on me. But I’m at my whit’s end. I’ve done everything. I’ve sat down, I’ve not said much, I’ve gotten after them, you name it. Because I’ve seen it and I’ve seen it time and time again.”

“So it’s my fault that I have not been a good enough coach to figure out how to make it happen,” Franklin added. “But I’m going to be really honest, I’ve tried about everything. Because this isn’t the first time. It’s a recurring theme. Then we completely stop doing what we are supposed to and are undisciplined. We quit running our stuff right on offense, we were out of position on defense. We don’t want the ball inside and we don’t have anybody outside that wants anything to do with it. So now, what do you do?”

“I’m disappointed because right now we should be 25-0,” Franklin said. “And we should be a hardened team. We’re an old team. We should be a tough and mentally tough basketball team right now and we’re not. That is 100 percent a reflection on me and that really bothers me because I detest that. We’ve lost the Olney game for sure for that reason, this game today for sure for that reason and probably the Indian Hills game. All of them we had the ball in our hands to go and win it at the end. Then we’ve had several close games where we’ve continually got to that 12 or 13 point lead and gone down. Now people throw a zone against us like it’s something difficult.”

“We know what to run against it, we know what to try to run against it, but there has to be some functioning that goes on,” Franklin added. “I don’t have an answer on who will be the answer. I don’t know who that will be and that frustrates me. Because, obviously, when you could be 25-0 and you’re right there and I think we can be a lot better than we are and I’ve thought that the whole time and that’s frustrated me. At times during practice or just going through the day-to-day, it can feel like I’m sometimes alone in that.”

“Honestly, I’m probably not going to be the answer,” Franklin said. “Because I don’t have any magic formula to wave over their heads. But then you have to work with the fact, just like today, we didn’t have anybody that’s going to hit a shot. For most of the game, we could configure it to where we didn’t have to hit a shot. It takes a lot of movement and a lot of looks to be able to do that when the other team is not going to respect that. We were able to do that against a man, but when we get against a zone, it’s a little tougher. But we could still get the shot. We got the ball inside and things opened up and things were there. We come off a screen and have an elbow jumper there that’s broke down. There were opportunities there, even though we were stale with it. But I can’t just manipulate it completely. You can do things that cause you to have some advantages. But with a 15 points lead, if we just guard down the stretch, we just started sticking on screens.”

“But again, who is the leader,” Franklin added. “I don’t want to get frustrated. If you’ve watched me, I’ve been sitting as much as I can hoping that maybe that would help. But then there a point where the competitor in you is going to say, ‘wait a minute’. But neither seems to elicit the proper response right now, so many we just can’t do it. I hope that we can. I think we can. I think it should be very doable to do what you need to do to finish this game out with a win. But maybe we can’t. Maybe that’s a bridge too far.”

The Trailblazers were led offensively by freshman Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) who finished with 24 points and a team-high eight rebounds and four assists.

Sophomore Michael Osei-Bonsu (Bolingbrook, Ill.) got the offense going early, scoring 13 first half points to finish with a season-high 22 points and five rebounds.

Sophomore Ryan Oliver was the third VU scorer in double figures, ending with 12 points, five rebounds and three assists.

Sophomore Karyiek Dixon (Enfield, London, UK) also pitched in with seven points and three rebounds for Vincennes.

The Trailblazers will look to bounce back when VU returns home to the Physical Education Complex Wednesday, Feb. 21 when Vincennes hosts Southwestern Illinois College at 7 p.m. eastern.

“I want to see the same thing that I want to see every day, I want to see them working with urgency, I want to see them working with some excitement and intensity,” Franklin said. “But all that’s fine. It’s what are you going to do when those lights come on on game night and you need to do all of those things to get yourself sharpe.”

“But we’ve practiced against everything we’re seeing and handled it,” Franklin added. “I thought we were manipulating them. I thought defensively we had them most of the night where they weren’t scoring very many points and then we just kind of stopped. Then we start looking around and start making excuses for the same actions that we’ve been dealing with all game. I don’t want to see that. I want to see us get hard-edged, get down and want to compete. But maybe that’s just not our personality. Maybe that’s just not who we are. So there is where the clash comes in as a coach, I’ve coached those types of guys forever and I like to think that I’m that kind of guy and I just can’t seem to get this team to be that kind of team.”

“They will play somewhat,” Franklin said. “But that hard edge mentality, if we don’t get it then we have no chance of doing the things that we’ve talked about. And if we would have had more of it by now, we would be 25-0. I don’t think anybody can argue that. I’m very frustrated because I would like us to get to do that and obviously, I want that to happen and I’ve thrown about every tactic there is at it at this point. Who’s on the bench, who’s playing, well if somebody will do it, they will get to play. It’s who is going to be those guys in the moment instead of the blank face looks we’ve been getting. Which, again, I don’t want that.”

“If you’ve been around the last few weeks, you’ve seen that I’m going to let them step up and I’m going to analytically try and take it,” Franklin added. “I, probably, down the stretch got a little more fired up about some things but nothing crazy. But until they want to do it and they look in the mirror and have some hard discussions with themselves, it’s not going to happen. Maybe it can’t happen and if it can’t happen then maybe I am expecting too much from them. Those are the options here. Until they get tired enough of this to grit their teeth and find another gear, this is what’s going to keep happening.”

“We had that happen last week, that’s why we had 60 points twice,” Franklin said. “It’s the same stuff that causes it. But we’ll see. Obviously, if we ever find a way to get another gear and another concentration level, we can win all of our games and we can beat everybody we play. It’s there in front of them. But it just seems to be a little hard for them right now. I wish I had another answer to give to them. But I don’t. Because that’s the type of hard thing that you are going to have to get over if you are going to be a champ instead of a team that just won some games. That’s one of the prices that you have to pay to be a champion. That’s why being a champion is a really, really special thing. It’s not something that just gets handed to you and right now we haven’t crossed that line to where you’ll be champions. Hopefully we can but if we keep giving opportunities away, opportunities quit happening.”

The Purple Aces competed in their final meet before MVC’s

TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The University of Evansville track and field team earned two podium finishes at the last meet before the conference championship next Sunday.

In their last tune-up for competition against only Missouri Valley Conference teams, the Purple Aces had their best women’s finish of the season at fourth. The women got to their best result with several points in the 800-meter race, taking all but one of the top five spots. Both teams earned meet-record results in the 800-meter race while setting multiple track PRs.

In the women’s 800-meter race, Nicole Prauchner (Neuhofen an der Ybbs, Austria) earned first place with a meet record of 2:13.51. Kalina Urbaniak (Suchy Las, Poland) and Eilen Brenne (Skien, Norway) also set meet records with times of 2:17.04 and 2:17.48 respectively. Nayla Martin (Vaudreuil-Dorion, Quebec, Canada) also finished in the top five with a time of 2:19.03.

On the men’s side, Rafael Rodriguez (Segovia, Spain) and Alvaro Monfort (Castile Y Leon, Spain) set meet records with times of 1:56.07 and 1:56.54 for eighth and 10^th place. Also finishing in the Top 15 were Adam Oulgout (St. Paul, Minn. / Central HS) and Tommaso Losma (Lombardia, Italy). Losma set a PR to finish 14^th with a time of 1:58.59.

UE also had strong finishes on the track in the men’s and women’s mile races. Samuel Lea (Worchester, England) set a PR of 4:20.59 in the men’s mile to finish fifth while Owen Cuplin finished 18^th with a time of 4:36.59. On the women’s side, both Sarah Vanderhoof-Dossett (Franklin, Tenn. / Independence HS) and Kyndall Anthis (Pakota, Ind. / Princeton Community HS) set PRs at 5:22.50 and 5:38.78 for sixth and 12^th place respectively.

Evansville’s sprinters had top 10 finishes in the men’s 60 meter dash, the women’s 60 meter hurdles, and the men’s 400-meter race. Freshman Austin Liversgowdy (Florence, Ky. / Cooper HS) had the best finish in the 400-meter race at sixth with a time of 51.16 seconds followed closely by Jose Ocampo (Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico) in ninth at 52.22 seconds. Raymond Felton III (Houston / Clear Brook HS) finished the men’s 60-meter dash in seventh with a time of 7.16 seconds while Kate Walke (Batesville, Ind. / Oldenburg Academy) ran 10^th in the 60-meter hurdles with a time of 9.59.

Three more PRs were set for the Aces in their field events of the day. Graduate thrower Jaden Hayes (Huntingburg, Ind. / Southridge HS) had PRs in both the men’s shot put and weight throw with throws of 14.81 meters and 17.83 meters for ninth and fifth-place finishes. Freshman thrower Jillian Miller (Boonville, Ind. / Boonville HS) also set a PR for the women in the shot put with a throw of 9.36 meters for seventh place.

Also throwing for the women were Brooke Springer (Henderson, Ky. / Henderson Community HS) and Kaitlyn Sansone (Fairfield, Ohio / Mercy McAuley HS) in the shot put with throws of 9.07 and 8.83 meters. In the weight throw, Gwen Darrah (Cleveland, Ohio / Orange HS) finished fourth with a throw of 12.80 meters while Springer was fifth at 12.23 meters. Hannah Bryan (Evansville, Ind. / Reitz HS) also threw seventh with a throw of 10.98 meters.

Rounding out throwing events for the Aces were Zach Dove (Princeton, Ind. / Princeton Community HS) and Cole Johnson (Salem, Ill. / Salem Community HS) on the men’s side. Dove placed seventh in the weight throw while Johnson placed 13^th with throws of 17.39 meters and 11.31 meters respectively. Dove also threw in the men’s shot put for eighth place with a throw of 14.82 meters.

UE will have a little over a week off before heading to Chicago for the Missouri Valley Conference Indoor Championships. Co-hosted by UIC and Valparaiso, the indoor championship will run on Sunday, Feb. 25, and Monday, Feb. 26. Events are set to begin at 9 a.m. on the 25^th.

The Purple Aces forced 18 turnovers on a team that only averages 15 a game

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – A quiet fourth quarter kept the University of Evansville women’s basketball team from its third straight Missouri Valley Conference win in a 72-56 loss to the Missouri State Lady Bears.

It was a one to two-possession game for three quarters, but the Aces couldn’t finish out against one of the top teams in the Valley on Saturday. Despite struggles in the rebounding game, UE forced more turnovers from the Lady Bears than themselves for only the fifth game this season. All but one Evansville player recorded a steal through 40 minutes while forward Neveah Thomas again led the Aces in scoring and rebounds with 19 points and six rebounds.

“The final score just doesn’t reflect how close this game was,” said Head Coach Robyn Scherr-Wells following the loss. “I’m so proud of the effort our players gave, being able to go into the fourth quarter with a one-possession game and going toe-to-toe with them for three quarters.

“It shows the growth of our team to be sitting here so disappointed that we didn’t win this game considering where we were a month ago. I’m really proud of our effort, we just ran out of gas in the fourth quarter because Missouri State made everything tough. They’re so good defensively, they made every shot tough to come by. And they showed why they’re one of the better teams in the conference right now.”

Saturday afternoon was a slow start on both sides as the first bucket took almost two minutes to make. UE took the early lead on a layup by guard Kynidi Mason Striverson. But Missouri State took off on a 12-point run to go up by double-digits with four minutes in the first quarter. Slowly but surely Evansville brought down the Lady Bears lead with a five-point run and a four-point run one after the other. Thomas had the last shot of the quarter, a layup with 12 seconds left to make it a one-possession game for the Aces.

UE’s offense kept clicking in the second quarter as guard Julia Palomo sunk a three in the first minute to tie the game. Evansville took their second lead less than 30 seconds later as Mason Striverson made a key layup to go up by two. But the Aces didn’t stay up for long as it became a shot-for-shot knockdown for four minutes. Missouri State was able to grab the first run of the quarter for a two-point lead with three minutes left. UE was able to answer as Palomo hit another three to kick off another basket for basket pace. The Lady Bears ended the quarter on a six to two run putting Evansville down by four points going into the second half.

An early foul gave the Aces the first point of the second half as Thomas split free throws at the line. UE returned to the line just a minute later as Evansville’s post-players made it a one-point game early in the third. The back-and-forth tempo came back as Missouri State tried to keep the Aces at bay. But UE took back the lead on back-to-back layups from Thomas and forward Maggie Hartwig shortly before the media timeout. Evansville extended its lead to four with 3:20 on the clock after going on a seven-point run. But the Lady Bears were able to respond with a run of their own to end the quarter with the Aces down 53-50.

After three close quarters battling with Missouri State, UE began to run out of gas, only scoring six points in the final 10 minutes. Guard Tené Smith had Evansville’s first two points of the six at the line in the first minute and a half. But the Aces had a minute-and-a-half scoring spell broken by Thomas, who had the final four points of the game for UE. The Lady Bears ended the game on a six-point run handing Evansville the 73-56 loss.

Three Aces players ended the afternoon in double figures led by Thomas with 19. Mason Striverson and Hartwig added 11 points each while Hartwig also had five rebounds. Three players also recorded two steals each as Thomas, Hartwig, and guard Lexie Sinclair forced turnovers from Missouri State.

UE hits the road for its next game on Thursday, Feb. 22. Evansville will make its way up US 41 to Terre Haute for a rematch with Indiana State. The Aces began the Valley season against the Sycamores in a 66-49 loss. Tip-off from the Hulman Center on Thursday is set for 5 p.m. CT.

TULSA, Okla. –  University of Evansville freshman left-hander Kenton Deverman struck out eight men in 6.0 innings of relief work on Saturday, and UE graduate students Chase Hug and Mark Shallenberger launched three-run home runs, as the Purple Aces pounded out a 14-3 victory at #26 Oral Roberts to even the season-opening series at one-game apiece.

“What a great response from our ballclub today to even up this series,” said UE head coach Wes Carroll.  “I knew we would get this type of effort from our guys with the experience that we have, and for a freshman like Kenton Deverman to compete like he did was really special to see.

“It really sets up a big game for both of our programs tomorrow.  We both have some pretty high expectations, and for us to get a season-opening series win against a quality opponent like this would be huge for us.  So, we need to come out ready for a battle and ready to compete.”

The Golden Eagles, ranked #26 in the NCBWA preseason poll and receiving votes in the USA Today/Coaches Preseason Poll, came out of the gates hot early, scoring a pair of runs in the first inning off of UE starter Nick Smith to take a 2-0 lead.

The lead would not last long though for ORU, as Evansville would answer back in the top of the third inning thanks to some wildness and the bat of Chase Hug.  After the inning opened with back-to-back hit-batters, Hug crushed a long home run over the bullpen in right field for his first home run of the year to give UE a 3-2 lead.

From there, Deverman took over in relief on a cold day in Tulsa, and he shut down a potent Oral Roberts attack.  After yielding a single to left field by reigning all-regional player Holden Breeze in his first collegiate at-bat, Deverman recorded eight-straight outs to silence the Golden Eagles’ bats.  Evansville would then explode for six runs in the fifth inning to make life easier on the mound for the freshman.

Evansville worked three walks to load the bases to begin the frame.  Then, after a pair of run-scoring wild pitches by the ORU bullpen, graduate catcher Brendan Hord knocked the first of two run-scoring doubles on the afternoon to give UE a 6-2 lead.  After another hit-by-pitch by ORU, Shallenberger then launched a mammoth three-run home run to deep right field to give UE a 9-2 lead.

UE would tack on five more runs in the seventh inning, powered by a run-scoring ground out by Hug, an RBI single by senior right fielder Kip Fougerousse, an RBI double by junior second baseman Cal McGinnis, and a two-run double by Hord to push the lead to 14-2.  Deverman would yield his only run of the afternoon on a solo home run in the bottom of the seventh inning, but he earned the win in his collegiate debut, holding Oral Roberts to a single run on five hits in 6.0 innings of work, while striking out eight.

Offensively, Hug went 1-for-4 with two run scored, a home run and four RBI, while Shallenberger and Hord both had two hits and drove in three.  Fougerousse and McGinnis also had two-hit days for UE.  Evansville out-hit Oral Roberts once again, 12-8, on the afternoon.

The rubber match of the three-game series will take place on Sunday at 1 p.m. at ORU’s J.L. Johnson Stadium in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  Freshman left-hander Kevin Reed will get the start for UE in his collegiate debut.