Lady Railsplitters Upset Third-Ranked Lee

HARROGATE, TN – With only eight games remaining in his collegiate coaching career, on Saturday evening Roger Vannoy and his Lady Railsplitters captured one the Lincoln Memorial University women’s basketball program’s biggest wins when they defeated NAIA third-ranked Lee University 70-63 to improve to 10-9 on the year, while dropping the Lady Flames record to 18-3 overall. (Box score)

While the victory wasn’t a conference game, the win was still a momentum boost on the heels of Vannoy’s announcement this week that he would be stepping down at the end of this season as head women’s basketball coach.  His reasoning, simply put was, “a time for a change” as he put it in a recent release by the University.

The Lady Railsplitters trailed until the 4:51 mark of the first half when they tied the game at 24-24.  LMU then took the lead at 4:31 on a three pointer by senior guard Madeline Richards (Floyds Knobs, IN) and never looked back, leading on a number of occasions by as many as 7 points.

Richards led all scorers with 20 points, while junior Heather Benton (Wooton, KY) contributing another 16.  The only other Lady Railsplitter in double figures was point-guard Betsy Bowser (Galveston, IN) who added 10 points and handed out 5 assists.  Senior Latoya Johnson (Miami, FL) came in off the bench to lead LMU on the boards with 11 rebounds.

At 10-9 overall, the Lady Railsplitters return to conference play this Wednesday when they travel to Wingate, North Carolina to take on the Lady Bulldogs of Wingate University.  Tip-off is slatted for 6:00 p.m. and the broadcast can be heard on the LMU Sports Network, WLMU 91.3 FM, 105.9 WTMT FM, on the World Wide Web at www.lmunet.edu/athletics.