No. 16 Trailblazers pick up big Region 24 road win at John A. Logan

CARTERVILLE, Ill. – The No. 16-ranked Vincennes University Trailblazers were on the road again Saturday afternoon as the Blazers headed to Carterville, Ill. for a tough Region 24 road showdown with the Volunteers of John A. Logan.

The Trailblazers got going early and were able to close out the game strong at the free throw line as VU picked up the 80-74 victory over the Volunteers.

The Trailblazers opened the game Saturday afternoon with another excellent start, jumping out to an early 10-1 lead and later building a 19-5 advantage over the Volunteers.

The VU lead would hold at 14 before the Volunteers offense began to chip away at the deficit, using a 13-5 run to cut the Trailblazer advantage down to six.

John A. Logan would get as close as five points in the first half before the Trailblazers closed out the first half strong to take a 39-31 lead into the locker room.

The two teams opened the second half trading baskets before Vincennes looked to be in complete control of the game with an 8-0 scoring run to take a 60-46 lead.

John A. Logan would fire back in front of the home crowd and use an 8-0 run to help get back within three at 70-67.

The Trailblazers would weather the storm from the Vols and come through big, first with a clutch three by freshman Travelle Bryson (Anderson, S.C.) and later at the free throw line by sophomore and 2024 NJCAA All-American Lebron Thomas (Bishopville, S.C.).

Vincennes would connect at the free throw line and come away with their seventh straight wire-to-wire Region 24 victory by the final score of 80-74.

"I thought we were locked in early," VU Hall of Fame Head Coach Todd Franklin said. "I thought we were locked into the game plan. The things that we wanted to do, we did. The things that we wanted to take away from them, we did."

"I thought several guys were good early," Franklin added. "I thought Dayton Williams was good early. He maybe got a little tired as the game went along, but early in the game he was good. I just thought we were locked in. They had five points after quite a bit of time and they were five that they shouldn't have had. We had a couple of busted assignments otherwise we would have pitched a shutout to that point."

"As the game went on, we got a little relaxed and it's hard to continue it against teams with that much talent at home," Franklin said. "But I thought it was a good effort. I thought Hussein Elmaraghy was huge. Bryan came out to by physical. Sometimes it can be a wild ride with Bryan, but he gave us a physical presence and an active presence. Hussein, I thought, was just tremendous. One thing you worry about with Hussein is defense but he was really good there. He was in the right spots. This was a game where I thought he could do that and he did and offensively he was really good. He was on the offensive glass and he took advantage of that we were getting downhill on them and they like to block shots. We talked about that extensively and Hussein took that to heart and did a good job today and that was huge."

"Travelle Bryson hit a big shot late and he made some big defensive plays at times," Franklin added. "He was active with his hands and got some deflections and pick offs which were big stops when we needed them. Christian Andrews did a good job off the bench. He held the fort and allowed us to keep Lebron out of foul trouble and keep him fresh for the finish. We made a concerted effort and knew that it would probably come down to a grind like that down the stretch. So those were all huge in this basketball game."

The Trailblazers were led offensively by Lebron Thomas who finished with 22 points and a team-high four assists, while hitting 10 big free throws in the game.

Sophomore Hussein Elmaraghy (Cairo, Egypt) stepped up big for the Trailblazers in the post off the bench, finishing his night with a season-high 16 points and seven rebounds.

Sophomore Bryan Akanmu (Paris, France) was the third VU scorer in double figures, finishing the game with 13 points and nine rebounds, while freshmen Dayton Williams (Louisville, Ky.) and Travelle Bryson finished with eight points each.

Bryson would come through for the Blazers on the defensive end as well, matching Akamnu's team-high with nine rebounds in the game and finishing with a team-high five steals.

The Trailblazers will look to keep their 13-game winning streak going as the Blazers return home to the Physical Education Complex Wednesday, Feb. 5 when VU hosts Lincoln Trail College at 7 p.m. eastern on Community Schools Night at the P.E. Complex.

"This is a big win for us," Franklin said. "I think this legitimizes us in every way. It legitimizes this streak and it legitimizes this team that has not lost a game with its full team. I don't think we've trailed much with our full team available here. But we've got a long way to go to get what we want. What we want is to be the last team standing when everybody is done. I think we certainly should be in the conversation with those teams today. Maybe we'll go on to do nothing the rest of this year, it guarantees nothing. But right now, today, there is no way that that is the 16th ranked team in the country. That ball club should definitely be in the top five, six or seven without any question about it."

"Then when you take into account that our losses happened against pretty good teams and when we didn't have our full team," Franklin added. "We were young and new but we also didn't have all of our guys. Travelle has made some big plays and he didn't play in two of our losses. Ali Sakho didn't play in any of them. Now we've had them all back and that puts people in the right places and positions and since that's happened and we got a little bit of practice time together, we've been pretty good. But we can get a lot better because we've had a lot of times where those guys couldn't practice. So we're still catching up. So there's still another punch or two left in us to move up."

"That's where we've got to get," Franklin said. "We'll go home and we'll enjoy it, take a big breathe and then come back and we've got two big home games next week. Both will be very quality games. Lincoln Trail has a nice team and SWIC is hot. Since we beat them, Coach Harrington has rallied the troops. He played Logan really tough and he's won ever since. So they will be ready for us on Saturday."

"The home folks need to come out," Franklin added. "We've got two home games and then we're not going to have any home games until the first of March and we've only got four left period. This is a basketball team that deserves their attention. This 13 game winning streak, against Division I teams, league games, two over Logan, one over Triton, at SWIC and at Wabash. It's been quality. So I think at this point in time, this team has earned the right for people to come see them and people should want to come see them because they are a fun team to watch. Sometimes they are a wild ride for me, but it should be a fun team for everybody to watch and I think our best basketball is still in front of us. We'll see if we can do it, but I think it is."

VINCENNES BOX SCORE

VINCENNES (80): Bryan Akanmu 5-11 3-4 13, Michael Cooper 0-7 5-9 5, Lebron Thomas 6-11 10-13 22, Dayton Williams 4-12 0-0 8, Ali Sakho 3-4 0-1 6, Christian Andrews 0-3 0-1 0, Taveon Smith 0-1 0-0 0, Travelle Bryson 3-7 0-0 8, Darstin Onye 0-0 0-0 0, Kenaz Ochogwu 1-1 0-0 2, Hussein Elmaraghy 5-7 6-6 16, Team 27-64 24-34 80.

John A. Logan – 31   43 – 74

VU (19-3, 9-0) – 39   41 – 80

Three-point goals: VU 2 (Bryson 2). Rebounds: VU 44 (Akanmu 9, Bryson 9). Assists: VU 15 (Thomas 5). Steals: VU 11 (Bryson 5). Blocked Shots: VU 7 (Williams 2). Turnovers: VU 15. Personal Fouls: VU 19. Fouled out: None.