No. 24 Trailblazers score early and often in big Region 24 win over Shawnee

VINCENNES, Ind. – The Vincennes University men's basketball team jumped back into the Top 25 this week in the first NJCAA Division I National rankings for 2025, checking in at No. 24 in the country.

The Trailblazers got the first opportunity to improve on this ranking Monday night as the Trailblazers hosted Shawnee Community College inside the Physical Education Complex.

VU was able to get off to a great start and build an early lead as the Blazers closed out their eighth straight win, winning over the Saints 89-50.

Vincennes came out of the gates firing early Monday night in front of the home crowd, opening the game by scoring the first nine points of the contest and quickly building a big 19-3 lead over the Saints.

Shawnee would answer back and cut the VU lead back to 10 at 24-14 but the Trailblazers were able to use a late 13-1 scoring run to pull away again and take a 46-25 advantage into the locker room at the break.

Coming out of the locker room in the second half the Saints opted to switch to a zone defense which allowed the VU shooters to catch fire from three-point range midway through the second half.

VU would hit seven of 13 three-point shots during the second half as the Trailblazers finished the game with an outstanding 53 percent shooting percentage as a team.

The Blazers continued to add to their lead and put the game away for good late by outscoring Shawnee 13-4 to close out the big 89-50 victory for the Trailblazers.

"Defensively we've held teams in the 50's all three games since we've been back," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "51 points against Volunteer State, who has some guys who can score and have scored against good teams. 59 on the road against SWIC and they scored a couple of buckets in the last minute or we could have held them in the low 50's. Then 50 tonight where we almost kept them in the 40's."

"It's not an accident," Franklin added. "Our guys are getting down and doing a better job of covering. We've done a better job of not having as many live ball turnovers, which we were giving up and it was hurting us. Giving the other team buckets when they couldn't face our defense because of that. And we've taken pretty good shots. You take good shots then they aren't getting anything easy because we aren't giving up long rebounds on bad shots. All of those things have come together for us to put up some good numbers defensively. We're trying to make sure we don't give them anything easy. We're not a big gambling team, that's not how we play. But we will try to force you into a tough first shot and don't give you a second one. That's what we've always done and our team is doing a better job of that now."

The Trailblazers spread the ball out extremely well Monday night offensively with eight VU scorers finishing the game with at least eight points.

VU was led offensively by sophomore Michael Cooper (Minneapolis, Minn.) who finished his night with 14 points and eight rebounds.

Sophomore Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) was the second VU scorer in double figures, just missing out on a double-double with 11 points, nine rebounds and five assists.

Freshman Christian Andrews (Asheville, N.C.) rounded out the Trailblazer double figure scorers, connecting on two of four from three-point range to finish the game with 11 points and a pair of assists off the bench.

Sophomore and 2024 NJCAA All-American Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.) and freshmen Dayton Williams (Louisville, Ky.) Jalen Calloway (Chicago, Ill.) and Travelle Bryson (Anderson, S.C.) all finished the game Monday night with nine points, with Thomas adding three assists, Williams dishing out a team-high six assists and Bryson coming away with five rebounds in the game.

Freshman Kenaz Ochogwu (E. Providence, R.I.) got going early and finished his night with eight points for the Trailblazers.

"We were 10 of 19 from three tonight and I thought we shot probably 17 good ones," Franklin said. "There was probably one late by Hussein and I'm not a big sideways catch guy and Travelle shot one in transition. He was open. Both of those shots were open but they maybe weren't as good. But for the most part, we shot good ones. We went inside-out with it and when we do that, I think we're a team that should hit shots. I think we've got guys that can make shots. We spread the floor. We're not an easy cover because we can drive the ball and attack you. We've got some guys who can score in the post, you've always got to be honest with them and we can spread the ball out a little bit. It's hard to cover that if you move the ball well, play smart and tough and have those weapons and then we always have the cherry on top of the sundae that we are always going to get on the offensive glass."

"By the time we get it all put together, we're a hard team to cover," Franklin added. "We're starting to put things together and the big thing this week is, do we get hungrier. Do we smell it now. We're now, we can do anything, it's all in front of us and to do that we have to get better. We've got to really, really grind to get it and I won't know if we've got that until I get back out here in practice because we've got possibly some version of a first place game Saturday against Lake Land. Could be both of us are undefeated or they could be one game back. They have been voted ahead of us in the District for the last month. So, we get to get them in here Saturday."

The Trailblazers will look to keep the hot streak going as they get set for another tough Region 24 test Saturday, Jan. 18 inside the P.E. Complex when VU hosts Lake Land College from Mattoon, Ill. Tip-off time Saturday is set for 4 p.m. eastern.

"There are three NJCAA Polls out there," Franklin said. "Nic Neilson does one, which I think is probably the best because of the way he computes it. JUCO Advocate does one with some media members and in those we were No. 12 and No. 17. I think that's a truer ranking. We're at No. 24 right now because we've been getting voted second in our own District. So I think we are more true in that 12 to 17 range with what we've earned. We'll see where we are but I think we can compete with anybody. But to prove that is what these weeks are about."

"Shawnee came in here undefeated in the District," Franklin added. "We knew that this week we were going to face two teams that were probably going to come in undefeated with us. We handled one tonight and we've got another one on Saturday and to do that we have to have a great week of preparation. That's across the board. We've got to rebound better, move our feet better, move the ball better, post better. It's everything."

"But the biggest thing that we have to do and there were times tonight I didn't think we did, is we've got to try to have our intensity level at it's highest point for 40 minutes," Franklin said. "And you have to push yourself to do that to have any chance of getting to that and at the end of the year you are going to have to do that to try to contend for National Championships. That's our thought process. The first thing you've got to do is win your District, win your regular season and you've got to get good to do that. But our overall thought process is still the same. When it's all over, we want to be the last ones standing and to do that we've got to put 40 minutes together. We're not doing that yet but we're getting closer."

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (89): Bryan Akanmu 3-5 5-6 11, Michael Cooper 5-7 3-3 14, Kenaz Ochogwu 4-5 0-0 8, Lebron Thomas 4-5 1-1 9, Dayton Williams 3-7 1-2 9, Christian Andrews 2-6 5-6 11, Meyoh Swansey 1-1 0-0 3, Jalen Calloway 3-6 1-2 9, Taveon Smith 0-0 0-0 0, Travelle Bryson 3-8 1-3 9, Ali Sakho 1-3 0-1 2, Hussein Elmaraghy 2-5 0-0 4, Team 31-58 17-24 89.

Shawnee – 25   25 – 50

VU (14-3, 4-0) – 46   43 – 89

Three-point goals: VU 10 (Williams 2, Andrews 2, Calloway 2, Bryson 2, Cooper, Swansey). Rebounds: VU 42 (Akanmu 9). Assists: VU 23 (Williams 6). Steals: VU 10 (Akanmu 3). Blocked shots: VU 6 (Cooper 2, Williams 2). Turnovers: VU 13. Personal Fouls: VU 26. Fouled out: None.