UNIVERSITY CENTER, Mich. – The UIndy men's basketball team (1-0) secured its season-opening victory over Northwood (0-1) on Friday night at the O'Neill Arena after limiting the GLIAC member to just 32.9 percent shooting. The Hounds are now 7-1 all-time against the Timberwolves.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Greyhounds led by 12 at the break before stretching their lead to 58-37 with under 10 minutes left. Northwood stormed back in the waning minutes, getting within seven to force UIndy to make free throws.
After a
Jordache Mavunga layup with 44 seconds remaining, the junior transfer sunk a pair from the charity stripe to seal the win to avenge last season's loss to the Timberwolves.
After being one of the most efficient teams in NCAA Division II a season ago from behind the arc, the Hounds drained 39 percent of their attempts on Friday.
Trevor Lakes had a team-high three triples, while
Jimmy King chipped in two from deep.
Mavunga grabbed a game-high 10 boards in the win, while senior
Jesse Kempson nearly completed a double-double with 16 points and nine rebounds.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
UIndy limited Northwood to under 33 percent from the field in the win, pulling down 39 defensive rebounds in the process, the most in at least 20 years for the Greyhounds. The Crimson and Grey last nabbed 37 boards on the defensive glass on January 4, 2008.
In his first regular season game since March 2017, King made his presence known with a game-high 20 points, while also recorded five rebounds and four assists. The redshirt junior was named to the All-GLVC second team after the 2016-17 season.
After not seeing time in either exhibition contest, freshman
Jacob Polakovich proved to be part of the UIndy force on the glass. The Grand Rapids, Mich. native tallied seven boards in just 12 minutes of action against Northwood.
HOUND BYTES
Head coach
Stan Gouard: "We did a tremendous job of defending early in the second half. We focused more on what we needed to execute, but took our foot off the gas pedal once we got a big lead.
"Polakovich is a rebounding machine. We have to find more minutes for him when he plays like he did tonight.
"We gave up 17 offensive rebounds. That's not going to win many games on the road. We're a really good basketball team and I'm happy we got to the line 32 times, but I'm not happy with how we're executing from the line this early in the season."
UP NEXT
The Greyhounds will make a quick turnaround, playing host Saginaw Valley State at 7 p.m. tomorrow evening. The Cardinals open the season with No. 1 Bellarmine tonight.
