Second Half Start (Or Lack Thereof) Kills Railsplitter Hopes For Win Over Lenoir-Rhyne

HARROGATE, TN – Following a close first half of play, the Lincoln Memorial University men’s basketball team trailed 31-24 at the half in Monday night’s South Atlantic Conference road game against league-leading Lenoir-Rhyne College.  The Railsplitters were still very much in the game as the second half got underway, but a scoreless stretch of eight minutes and fifty-four seconds to open the second half quickly took away any chances of leaving Hickory with an upset. (Box score)

The Bears extended their home conference winning streak to 21 games by playing their trademark consistent style of basketball.  L-R hit 47.8% from the field, 41.2% behind the three point line and 80.0% of their shots from the free throw line to move to 16-7 overall and 10-3 in the SAC, remaining the #1 team in the league.  To add insult to injury, the Bears crushed LMU on the boards by pulling 40 rebounds to Lincoln Memorial’s 22, including 15 offensive rebounds.

The loss drops the Railsplitters under the .500 mark for the first time this season at 11-12 overall and moves LMU’s South Atlantic Conference record to 5-8 on the year.  The Splitters have only four remaining regular season games, two of which are at home.  This Wednesday LMU will travel to Catawba College before returning home this weekend to play host to arch rival Carson-Newman College.