By Troy Guthrie, Sports Information Director
Men's and women's basketball, cross country update
November 6, 2008
Trailblazers Look to Joust Chargers
The word of the week around the 17th-ranked Vincennes Trailblazers basketball program is DEFENSE !
Coach David Ragland and his staff led the team in a collective sigh of relief after Monday night's come-from-behind 74-68 win at Olney Central. The youthful Trailblazers trailed 43-32 at the half and had to withstand a rowdy Blue Knights crowd and an offensive show by Olney Central guard Jared Rehmel while mounting the comeback.
Ragland gave his team the day off Tuesday and the Trailblazers (2-0) returned Wednesday with a focus on trying to ensure that Monday's first half will be only a bad memory when VU faces Carl Sandburg College at 5 p.m. Saturday at the VU P.E. Complex. It will be the Homecoming game for both the VU men and women, who host Rio Grande JV at 3 p.m.
“We realize that our defense has to get better...we have to be better against the dribble-drive and on help-side (defense),” Ragland said. “But we also have to do a better job of blocking out and rebounding. Sometimes, we have a tendency to take a break in the middle of all that and we have to remember that the other team's possession isn't over until you have the ball.
“You just have to have a level of toughness,” he added. “Our guys have the ability and they just have to have the will to do it. It's all part of the process we're in; every day, we talk about the same things and we have a bunch of guys who have already started to get it.”
As a result, Ragland said, he has seen development from several players. His team's refusal to lose Monday night was a character check and the coach believes his team passed in the second half.
“It would have been easy for them to say, 'forget it' and wave the white flag,” Ragland said. “The crowd was all over them, they were down 11 and we couldn't seem to keep anybody in front us defensively. But they fought back and we got a win.”
Ragland said the positives emerging for his team include freshman Cordell Passley's play (11 points and good decision-making against Olney Central, as well as becoming a more vocal leader in practice); leadership by example of sophomores John Freeman and Devon Archie; and freshmen Donald Stewart, Daimion Garrett, Johnie Davis, Chris Wyse and Chris Henderson looking more comfortable in their roles.
Now, Carl Sandburg is in the Trailblazers' cross hairs. The Chargers (10-19 last season) feature Kuddles Hopkins, a 6-foot-3 sophomore who was tabbed as a preseason Second-Team All-American this year after averaging 16 points, six rebounds and three assists last season. He also shot 37 percent from 3-point range. Hopkins had 18 when the Chargers defeated Spoon River 94-69 on November 1.
Carl Sandburg's lineup will also include Hopkins' backcourt mate sophomore Gary Rademaker, who averaged seven points per game last season. Sophomore Graylin Smith, a 6-foot-6 forward, adds scoring ability and a nose for the ball (8.5 points and 5.6 rebounds per game last season) off the bench for the Chargers.
November 5, 2008
Cold Shooting Does in Lady Trailblazers in Opener
The Vincennes Lady Trailblazers' cold shooting and Danville Area Community College's 3-point barrage were a fatal combination Wednesday night in VU's89-79 loss to the Jaguars at the VU P.E. Complex. It was VU's regular season opener.
The Jaguars built their lead to 20 points in the second half and curbed a VU comeback that had sliced the lead to single digits with two minutes remaining. Sophomore Hope Elam had 29 points, freshman Ashley Buis added 20 and freshman MyQueisha Bratton had 13 in the loss. Danville's Abby Kinder had 25 – nearly half on four treys in the first half – while Ashley Ross finished with 19.
VU shot only 29-for-73, including 8-of-22 from behind the arc. Danville was 33-for-65 from the field (14-for-30 in 3-point shooting).
The Lady Trailblazers' shooting woes kept them from scoring for the first six and a half minutes of the game. Buis finally broke the ice by banking in a runner. It was more than four minutes before Elam rebounded a VU miss, put it back in while being fouled and completed the three-point play to change the scoreboard on the Lady Trailblazers' side a second time.
In the meantime, Kinder and Danville's Kassie Yates had each buried a couple shots from 3-point land to put the Jaguars up 13-5 and VU point guard Katie Ahaus was sitting out with two early fouls.
Ahaus returned and contributed a pair of buckets to help cut the lead to 15-12 with about eight minutes remaining. But the Trailblazers couldn't get over the hump as Kinder and Yates continued to score almost at will. VU did manage to get within one at 32-31 at the 2:40 mark, thanks to 3-pointers by Elam and Bratton.
However, Danville staved off a possible lead change and took a 41-36 advantage to the locker room at intermission. Much of the damage was from Kinder and Yates combining to be 7-of-13 from behind the arc in the opening half.
The second half started much like the first for VU. Buis finally got the Trailblazers on the board with a free throw a little over two minutes in. But Danville outscored VU 14-7 in the opening four and a half minutes to build the lead to 12.
Ross' three-point play extended the advantage to 59-44 and Kinder's fifth field goal of the second half provided a 20-point Jaguar lead, 68-48, with just over 11 minutes to go.
That's when the Lady Trailblazers began to whittle away and got the lead down to nine, 84-75, with 2:08 remaining. Ross answered with yet another trey and swept aside any comeback victory hopes that VU might have had.
VU (0-1) will host Rio Grande JV at 3 p.m. Saturday at the PE Complex. The VU men follow and host Carl Sandburg College at 5 p.m.
Jaguars 89, Lady Trailblazers 79
VINCENNES
Elam 6-10 2-3 7-10 29; Buis 7-15 3-6 3-4 20; Bratton 5-12 3-6 0-3 13;
Ahaus 5-10 0-1 2-2 12; Craft 1-7 0-5 0-0 2; Gay 1-2 0-0 0-0 2; Cochren 0-4
0-0 1-2 1; Kapoulitsa 0-2 0-1 0-0 0; Buchanan 0-2 0-0 0-0 0; Dawson 0-0
0-0 0-0 0; Cartwright 0-0 0-0 0-0 0; Hunt 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 29-73 8-22
13-19 79.
DANVILLE AREA COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Kinder 10-16 5-8 0-0 25; Ross 6-17 3-6 4-8 19; Yates 5-14 3-9 0-0 13;
Martin 4-8 1-2 1-2 10; Miller 4-6 0-0 0-0 8; Rose 0-5 0-1 4-6 4; Peters
1-4 1-4 0-0 3; Roach 1-1 0-0 0-0 0; Bradley 1-1 0-0 0-0 2; Richards 1-3
0-0 0-0 2; Asher 0-0 0-0 0-0 0; Cunningham 0-0 0-0 0-0 0; Beard 0-0 0-0
0-0 0; Brandon 0-0 0-0 0-0 0. Totals: 33-65 14-30 9-16 89.
November 5, 2008
VU Runners Hope Momentum Carries to Championship Meet
It's one of the oldest, most tired clichés in sports, but every coach loves to see it happen.
“Peaking at the right time” can boost a less-than-positive season and make a good season even better. The Vincennes University cross country team peaked during the October 25 NJCAA Region XII Championship in Lansing, Mich., and Coach Chris Gafner is hoping the improved performance can continue right through Saturday's Division I National Cross Country Championship in Spartanburg, S.C.
VU earned the trip to the national event with a third-place team finish at the regional meet. The Trailblazers' top runner throughout the season, sophomore Tyler Kent, was fifth in that race, while Matt Mitchell came in 12th, Kevin Selby 21st, Mike Roark 23rd, Sean Dietrich 25th, Ben Gessner 28th and Quentin Goodin 35th.
“We had a couple of big break-throughs at this meet,” Gafner said after that meet. “It was definitely our best meet of the year and we had guys really building up to this over the past three meets.”
Selby and Mitchell turned in personal-best times for the season at the regional championships, as Selby knocked 1:44 off his best finish, while Mitchell shaved about 40 seconds off his top time of the season.
Now VU needs to hang onto that momentum, Gafner pointed out.
“The first half of the season, we definitely weren't where we wanted to be,” he said. “But, with the way we've improved, I don't think it's impossible for us to continue doing better right on through the national meet and maybe look for a top-15 or so finish there.”
Gafner said he is also hoping that runners such as Dietrich and Goodin join Kent, Mitchell and Selby in turning in top times. That pair of runners is even more important to the Trailblazers' chances because of the uncertainty brought on by injuries to Roark and Gessner. Roark has battled a calf strain while Gessner has dealt with a shin problem. Lately, both runners have been confined to cross-training but plan to compete a the national race.
“You can't gain or lose a lot of fitness in the last week before the national meet, and both of those guys have cross-trained diligently,” Gafner said. “We'll see how they do and hope that others step up big again.”
For more information, please contact Troy Guthrie, Sports Information Director, at 812-888-6831 or tguthrie@vinu.edu.
