KIRKSVILLE, Mo. – The seventh-ranked UIndy men's basketball team notched a quality road win at Truman State Saturday afternoon, downing the GLVC West's second-place team, 83-64.  The Greyhounds (21-2, 13-2 GLVC) received a game-high 22 points from junior Jordan Loyd while shooting 22-for-26 (.846) from the foul line.
 
After hanging a gaudy 112 points on the board versus Saint Joseph's just two days ago, the Bulldogs (17-8, 9-6) were limited to less than half that Saturday.  TSU, who came into the day as the GLVC's second-highest scoring team, were held to 19 points below its average, while senior Seth Jackson, the league's leading scorer at 22.5 ppg, tallied a relatively-low 15 points.
 
UIndy head coach Stan Gouard knew that shutting down Jackson would be key.
 
"We decided to put Lucas Barker on Jackson," explained the seventh-year coach.  "I'm sure they thought Dai-Jon Parker would guard him, but we wanted to put Lucas on him because I thought strength-wise they were kind of right there with each other.

"We wanted to crowd (Jackson), keep him off the foul line, keep him out of the paint and front him in the post, and I thought we did a great job for 40 minutes.   You look at his numbers… he had 15 points, and seven points came at the free throw line and those came late, so we did a great job on him.

"I'm proud of my guys for the way we stuck to the game plan."
 
UIndy trailed 16-15 midway through the first half but created some separation by scoring 23 of the half's final 33 points to earn a 36-24 edge at the first buzzer.
 
Just out of the break, the Greyhounds looked like they were going to put the game away.  Two Kendall Vieke triples fueled a 12-0 run that put the Hounds up 53-30 just three-and-a-half minutes into the final period.  The explosion was punctuated by an emphatic two-handed slam by Joe Lawson that forced a Bulldog timeout.
 
The home team responded to the stoppage with 12 unanswered points of its own.  The Bulldogs managed 10 of those points with Jackson on the bench, with sophomore Cory Myers amassing two buckets, two assists and a steal in the spurt.
 
The Hounds would weather the storm, however, as they took the Bulldogs' best shot, shook it off and retook control.  An and-one play from Loyd ended the drought while one of Parker's four treys further swung the momentum.
 
UIndy eventually topped the 80-point mark for the 14th time this eason, upping its record to a perfect 14-0 in those contests.  Nevertheless, Gouard gave a lot of credit to his defense afterwards.
 
"We came in to practice in last night and spent about 40 minutes of working on our defense, and we were great in the first half.  We were actually superb.  They were 0-for-11 from 3-point range in the first, and in the second half, they made some threes late – they were 6 of 23 for the game – but we did a great job with such a short preparation time for our guys, especially coming in last night as late as we did to prepare for (Truman State)."
 
UIndy got the "W" without versatile veteran Brennan McElroy, as the fifth-year senior sat due to an injury sustained early in Thursday's win at Quincy.  As a result, Vieke, who finished with eight points, made his third start of the season and fourth of his career.
 
Joining Loyd in double figures was Lawson, as the Indy native recorded his sixth double-double of the year with 15 points and 10 rebounds.  Barker also stuffed the stat sheet, compiling 12 points, eight boards, seven assists and three steals.
 
Parker added 12 points; Salim Gloyd, Eric Davidson and Martyce Kimbrough combined for 14 points off the bench; and Jamel Crocker chipped in three boards and three blocks in nine minutes of play.
 
With just three regular-season games remaining, the biggest road trip of the year is on deck for UIndy.  The Hounds head to Southern Indiana Thursday, Feb. 19, followed by a marquee match-up at No. 3 Bellarmine two days later.

UIndy will then wrap up the regular season at home versus in-state Saint Joseph's Thursday, Feb. 26.

 
Notes: UIndy evened its record to 7-7 on Valentine's Day games since 1975.  Five of those losses came against ranked teams … The Hounds have shot better than 83 percent (54-for-65) from the line in their last three games.