BELLEVILLE, Ill. – The Vincennes University Trailblazers continued to climb in the National Rankings this week, moving up one spot to No. 3 in this week’s NJCAA Division I rankings.

The Blazers faced a tough defensive battle Wednesday night in their first test with this new ranking against Southwestern Illinois College.

The Blazers fell behind early but were able to battle back and pick up the 69-61 victory over the Blue Storm.

Vincennes got off to a slow start in Belleville with the Blue Storm capitalizing on a pair of VU early turnovers to take a quick 6-0 lead.

VU would get the SWIC lead down to two before Southwestern expanded it back to seven at 22-15.

The Trailblazers rallied late in the first half, scoring seven straight to take their first lead of the game with 2:44 on the clock at 28-27.

The two teams would trade baskets and end up heading into the locker room the same way they started the game, with the score even at 32-32.

After Southwestern scored the first four points of the second half, the Trailblazers looked to gain control of the game with seven unanswered to take a 39-36 lead.

VU would grow their lead to seven at 48-41 before the Blue Storm answered back to even the score at 48-48.

VU would then answer with a scoring run of their own, taking a nine point lead at 57-48.

The Vincennes lead would hold at nine until SWIC cut the deficit down to three at 62-59, before the Blazers again regained control of the game with a late 6-0 scoring run to take a 68-59 lead.

Vincennes would hold this lead and put the game away, picking up their 17th victory of the season and fourth straight Region 24 win by the final score 69-61.

BELLEVILLE, Ill. – The Vincennes University Lady Trailblazers looked to be cruising to another Region 24 road victory Wednesday, leading the Lady Blue Storm of Southwestern Illinois College 41-16 at the half, before SWIC rallied in the second half to score 57 points in the final 20 minutes.

Vincennes was able to hang on to the lead however and escape Belleville with a 75-73 victory over SWIC.

The Lady Blazers got off to a slow start Wednesday night, with SWIC scoring the first four points of the game before VU answered back to take the lead at 5-4.

Vincennes would look to be rolling on all cylinders early as the Lady Blazers closed out the opening quarter of play on an 11-0 scoring run to take a 19-8 lead after the first 10 minutes of play.

The run would continue into the second quarter with the Lady Blazers again holding SWIC to single digit points in the quarter at the Blazers began to pull away and take a 41-16 lead into the halftime break.

Southwestern Illinois came out of the locker room looking determined to battle back into the game and set the tone early scoring the first eight points of the second half and later cutting the VU lead all the way down to two with an 11-0 run to close out the third quarter.

SWIC would cut the VU lead down to just a single point early in the fourth quarter at 56-55 before the Blazers answered back with five straight points.

The Lady Blue Storm would attempt another late comeback and get the deficit back down to two 63-61 before the Lady Blazers again expanded the lead to seven at 70-63.

SWIC would get an opportunity at the free throw line with under four seconds remaining to tie the game but could only come up with one of the two free throw attempts as the Lady Blazers come away with the 75-73 victory, their sixth straight and remain unbeaten at 4-0 in Region 24 play.

The Lady Blazers were led off the bench by sophomore Johnai Wimbleduff (Indianapolis, Ind.) who came through with 16 big points off the bench, while also dishing out a pair of assists.

Sophomore Elikya Baseyila (Paris, France) ended her night with 12 points and three rebounds, while fellow sophomore Maycee Lange (Vincennes, Ind.) ended with 10 points and six rebounds off the VU bench.

Freshman Karina Scott (Noblesville, Ind.) was the fourth VU scorer to reach double figures Wednesday night, ending with 10 points and a pair of steals.

Freshman Taylor Guess (Indianapolis, Ind.) just missed out on a double-double off the bench, finishing with eight points and a team-high nine rebounds and four steals.

Freshman Destinee Hooks (Indianapolis, Ind.) finished the game with eight points, four rebounds and a team-high five assists and four steals.

UE outlasts Beacons in exciting contest

 EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Contributions came from all ten University of Evansville men’s basketball players on Wednesday evening as the Purple Aces got back on the winning track with a 78-75 Missouri Valley Conference win over Valparaiso inside the Ford Center.

Yacine Toumi and Chuck Bailey III recorded 13 points apiece while Kenny Strawbridge Jr. scored 11 and Antonio Thomas posted 10.  Josh Hughes registered a team-high nine rebounds and contributed eight points.  Toumi hauled in eight caroms.  Tanner Cuff had nine tallies while Ben Humrichous returned to the floor and scored seven points.  Cam Haffner scored five points but dished out three assists in the winning effort.  Isaiah Stafford connected on 10 of his 19 attempts on his way to 31 points.

“For us to go through the stretch that we did over the last five games was tough.  Having Ben back helped but everyone made a contribution,” UE head men’s basketball coach David Ragland said after the win.  “It was a complete team win; we had four in double figures and three more right there.  Josh and Yacine came close to double-doubles and Cam Haffner came in and played unbelievable minutes, especially when we pushed the lead to nine.”

Hitting their opening two shots of the game, the Beacons took a 5-0 lead out of the gate.  After missing the previous five games, Ben Humrichous made his return and hit Evansville’s first basket of the night.  Following a Yacine Toumi field goal, Antonio Thomas connected from downtown to put the Purple Aces up 7-5 before Kenny Strawbridge Jr. followed with a triple that capped a 10-0 run.

Just over six minutes into the contest, Josh Hughes knocked down UE’s third outside shot to give his team its largest lead of the period at 17-9.  Valpo countered with the next four points, but it was Tanner Cuff scoring off a turnover to reestablish the 8-point lead at 21-13 inside of the 12-minute mark.  Posting eight of the next nine points, the Beacons cut the deficit to one before retaking a 30-27 lead with three free throws with 7:16 remaining.

Three more lead changes took place in the final minutes of the period with Hughes recording his second make of the game to send the Aces to the break with a 40-38 lead.

Out of the break, the first basket belonged to the Beacons, who retook a 41-40 lead with their 7^th triple of the evening.  Just as he had in the first half, Humrichous opened the scoring in the second stanza.  His long triple put UE back in front and a Valpo foul saw the Aces retain possession.  With the shot clock running down, Strawbridge converted from outside to give Evansville a 46-41 edge.

Eight in a row by the Beacons saw them retake the lead at 49-47 as the teams would exchange the lead once again.  As the final period reached its midway point, Evansville slowly took control.  With the score knotted at 59-59, UE recorded 12 of the next 15 points to take its largest lead at 71-62 at the 6:16 mark.  Cam Haffner knocked down a 3-pointer before a slick pass to Chuck Bailey III resulted in another triple that capped off the run.

Valparaiso had one more run left in the tank and cut the gap to one at 74-73 inside the final two minutes.  Tanner Cuff hit a shot that pushed the lead back to three, but the Beacons matched it on the other end.  With Evansville up by one, Toumi was fouled with 19 ticks remaining and came through with two clutch free throw makes.  In VU’s final possession, Hughes forced a turnover and the Aces hung on to clinch the victory.

Evansville shot 50.9% on the night while limiting Valparaiso to 44.4%.  The Beacons had a slight 32-31 edge on the boards and converted 11 triples with UE hitting 10.

This weekend, the Aces embark to Iowa for road contests at Drake (Saturday at 5 p.m.) and UNI (Tuesday at 7 p.m.).