Flat Start in Second Half Allows Mars Hill to Defeat Railsplitters

HARROGATE, TN – Although Lincoln Memorial trailed visiting Mars Hill College for nearly the entire game, it was the Railsplitter’s flat start of the second half that allowed the Lions to pull away in the final period and capture an 81-67 win in Harrogate on Saturday night. (Box score)

When the Lions Thomas Moses hit a three point jumper to take Mars Hill into the locker room with a six point lead, the Railsplitter players must have realized that they needed to come out with tremendous intensity at the beginning of the second half to get back any momentum that Mars Hill had gained from the basket.  If the Railsplitters knew what they needed to do, they didn’t get the job done.

The Lions came out at the beginning of the second half and opened up a ten point lead by the 15:34 mark.  By the time the clock ticked under eleven minutes to play, LMU had only been able to pull as close as five points when Mars Hill went on a run and pushed the lead back out to a seventeen point margin.  Eventually the Railsplitters succumbed to the Lions relentless attack and fell 81-67.

The loss puts the Lincoln Memorial men’s basketball team at 11-11 on the year and 5-7 in South Atlantic Conference play.  Considering the Railsplitters were tied for second place in the league race the last time they faced the Lions, Saturday’s loss in monumental in that it is the Splitters fourth consecutive loss and they have fallen from second to a tie for fifth in conference play since their last win, which was oddly enough an 82-62 drubbing of Mars Hill in North Carolina.

The Railsplitters were counting on a win Saturday night with road games coming up  this week against league leading Lenoir-Rhyne College (15-5, 9-2) and fourth place Catawba College (13-9, 8-3).  If the Railsplitters aren’t able to salvage at least a split in one of these two road trips, things could snowball all the way into the end of the season.  Tip-off for Monday's game with Lenoir-Rhyne is set for 8:00 p.m.