HARROGATE, Tenn. -- Freshman guard Ross Mathis (Greer, S.C.) capped a career night with a game-sealing three-pointer as the Lady Railsplitters (11-8, 8-5 SAC) outlasted the Brevard Tornados (3-13, 2-11 SAC) in a back-and-forth contest 70-65 in South Atlantic Conference women's hoops action on Wednesday at Tex Turner Arena.
 
In a game that featured 13 lead changes and 12 ties, Lincoln Memorial finished on the winning end of the final momentum shift. A Kiara Rawls (Killeen, Texas) layup gave the Lady Railsplitters a 60-59 advantage with 4:34 to play, but Nicole Graham scored five unanswered points to put Brevard in front 64-60 at the under-four media timeout. A Rawls freebie and a three-pointer by Shea Coker (Knoxville, Tenn.) evened the score at 64-64 before Ariadna Smith gave the Tornados a one-point lead with 1:53 left.
 
The Tornados would not score another point for the remainder of the contest, though, as Rawls gave the Lady Railsplitters the lead for good with two free throws at the 1:40 mark. After a couple of Brevard misses, the Lady Railsplitters had the ball with a chance to take either a three-point lead or put the game away. It would be the latter that came to fruition. As time ticked down on the shot clock, Mathis launched a fading corner three-pointer as the buzzer sounded that hit nothing but the bottom of the net and ultimately buried the Tornados.
 
That triple was the exclamation point on what was a stellar performance for Mathis, who reset her career high with 17 points on 5-of-9 shooting. The Greer, S.C. native went 4-for-6 from three, dished out a pair of assists and swiped three steals. Fellow freshman Shea Coker poured in 15 points with three triples, while Britney Guy (Locust Grove, Ga.) turned in a career-high 14 points with eight rebounds and two assists. Sydnie Anderson (Cleveland, Tenn.) was the third player to tally a career-high for the short-handed Lady Railsplitters, who had only eight available for the game, as she scored 10 points in just 19 minutes of work.
 
The Lady Railsplitters struggled on two-pointers, hitting just 12 of their 38 tries from inside of the three-point arc, but they offset that by hitting a season-high 10 three-pointers on 23 attempts. Lincoln Memorial was also fairly efficient from the free throw line with a 16-for-23 clip (69.6 percent). The home team dominated the battle of the boards 49-31, while the Lady Railsplitters' bench outscored the Tornados' second unit 31-10.
 
Guy buried the first shot of the game for the Lady Railsplitters, but the home team subsequently missed its next six shots. Over that same span, Katie Williams scored six of her 12 first-half points to put the Tornados in front 8-2 by the 16:08 mark. Mathis ended LMU's more than five-minute scoring drought with a triple at 14:22, and Guy followed suit with another trey just 23 seconds later. That trimmed the deficit back to 10-8. It would take some time before the Tornados finally relinquished that early lead, though, as Brevard used back-to-back threes by Williams to make it a 20-15 game with 9:13 left in the half. The Lady Railsplitters pulled to within two on a Coker jumper and a free throw from Guy, but Brevard scored the next four points to pull ahead 24-18 at 7:43.
 
Neither team scored for the next three minutes, as the two squads combined to go 0-for-10 until Mathis drained a deep three and Guy hit another trey in the ensuing possession to even the score at 24-24. Four free throws helped the Tornados retain a slight edge, but buckets by Lakeisha Beasley and Sydnie Anderson drew it to a 28-28 stalemate. Mathis's jumper provided the Lady Railsplitters with a 30-29 lead - their first since the 18:30 mark - with 58 seconds left. That didn't last long as Taylor Hiatt knocked down two free throws to send the Tornados into the half with a 31-30 advantage.
 
Neither team established a lead larger than six points at any point in the game as the Lady Railsplitters knocked off the Tornados for the fourth straight time and won their fourth consecutive game within the friendly confines of Tex Turner Arena.
 
Brevard shot 36.4 percent from the floor (20-for-55), 30.4 percent from three (7-for-23) and 75 percent from the free throw line (18-for-24).
 
Katie Williams and Madison Lenox paced the Tornado offense with 19 points apiece. Lenox also led Brevard in rebounding with seven boards while dishing out four assists and grabbing three steals. Nicole Graham was the only other player in double figures for Brevard as she scored 10 points in 23 minutes.
 
The Lady Railsplitters makes the long trek to Hartsville, S.C. on Saturday for a South Atlantic Conference contest against the Coker Cobras. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.