RENSSELAER, Ind. –The No. 16 UIndy men's basketball team (7-0, 1-0 GLVC) upped its season-starting win streak to seven with a decisive 99-64 win at in-state Saint Joseph's Saturday night.  Senior Joe Lawson led all players in both points (18) and rebounds (8) while the Greyhounds shot 62 percent from the field.
 
Three Hounds totaled 16 points, including Jordan Loyd, Brennan McElroy and Dai-Jon Parker.  Junior Salim Gloyd added 14 points off the bench.
 
Meanwhile, junior point guard Lucas Barker continued to distribute the ball with great efficiency, as evident by his 10 assists.  Barker, who came into the night ranked second in Division II in assists, upped his season assist average to an impressive 8.9 per game.
 
As a team, UIndy has already notched five games with 20 or more assists this season, compared to just one from last year's NCAA Tournament team.
 
Three days after hanging 124 points on Ohio Mid-Western College, the Pumas (1-6) barely managed half that versus the Hounds.  They finished the night with an even .400 field goal percentage, including a mere 27-percent effort in the first half.
 
"That's impressive," remarked Gouard of his team's defensive effort and resulting low shooting percentage from Saint Joseph's in the first half.  "That never happens.  When you defend like that, you can win a bunch of ball games, and I hope that this is something we build off of going into the conference season."
 
The Pumas scored a deuce on the game's first possession, but it was all Greyhounds after that. The visitors scored 14 consecutive points to take control, punctuated by a thunderous dunk by Lawson.  The Indy native had a pair of slam dunks on the night on the way to his game-high point total.
 
On the other side, Puma senior Cameron Vines, the GLVC's leading scorer, compiled 17 points on just 5-of-13 shooting.
 
"Our biggest key tonight going into the game was keeping Vines out of the paint, and I thought we did that," said Gouard.  "He averaged 27 points a game versus UIndy going into tonight so we held him 10 points below that average."

The Hounds drained 11 triples as a team, inclduing three from Gloyd.  Loyd, Parker and Kendall Vieke each had two.

Perhaps the most exciting play of the night came midway through the second half when Barker found McElroy for an alley-oop slam.  Always happy to run, the Greyhounds had a 4-on-1 break that ended with a Barker pass off the backboard to McElroy for the jam.  The flush made it 82-42 UIndy, good for the largest lead of the night.
 
Though they are off next week, the Hounds are looking forward to an escape from the chilly Midwest weather when they travel to South Florida for the Cruzin' Classic.  UIndy invades Miami Shores, Fla., for a pair of games, starting with a top-20 match-up with 12th-ranked Barry University Dec. 16.