HARROGATE, Tenn. -- The Lady Railsplitters (7-6, 4-3 SAC) hope to avoid a fifth-straight loss on Saturday as they travel to Wingate, N.C. for a South Atlantic Conference clash against the Wingate Bulldogs (8-6, 6-1 SAC) at Cuddy Arena.
 
Lincoln Memorial trailed Anderson by as many as 18 early in the second half on Wednesday night, but a number of big runs helped the home unit pull to within two at 76-74 on a Katrina Ottesen (Chandler, Az.) three-pointer with 45 seconds left. The Trojans were able to ward off the Lady Railsplitters at the charity stripe, though, knocking down six of their eight free throw attempts in the final 40 seconds to hand LMU its fourth straight loss, 82-78.
 
Freshman guard and Powell High School graduate Shea Coker (Knoxville, Tenn.) has been a bright spot for the Lady Railsplitters during the second half of this four-game losing skid. Coker has led Lincoln Memorial in scoring in each of the last two games, as she posted a then career-high 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting against Lenoir-Rhyne last Saturday. Coker obliterated that mark on Wednesday, leading all players with 18 points on just nine shot attempts. Coker produced those 18 points while adding six rebounds in just 26 minutes of action off the bench. She is 7-for-10 from three-point range in her last two appearances.
 
Saturday's opponent is trending in the opposite direction of the Lady Railsplitters. The Wingate Bulldogs welcome LMU to Cuddy Arena while riding a four-game winning streak. Since falling to No.5 Pittsburgh State in Hawaii on December 17, the 'Dogs have registered wins over BYU-Hawaii, Anderson, Carson-Newman and Lenoir-Rhyne in succession. In Wednesday's win over the Bears, Wingate turned in one its most efficient offensive games of the season, shooting 47 percent from the floor and 50 percent from three in a 71-54 thrashing of the defending SAC champs.
 
Wingate's numbers on either end of the floor don't jump off the page. The Bulldogs average just over 64 points per game on 38.7 percent shooting from the floor and 32 percent shooting from deep. Their opponents are scoring right at 63 points per on 39.5 percent shooting. Those numbers have jumped slightly during the Bulldogs' four-game winning streak, as they have shot better than 43 percent in three of those four games.
 
The Bulldogs are balanced offensively with six players averaging more than eight points per game. Juniors Amber Neely and Morgan McGee are the only Wingate players scoring more than 10 points per. Neely is pouring in 13.5 points per game on 50 percent shooting, and she is adding six rebounds, four assists and three steals per outing. McGee is pitching in 10.9 points and five rebounds per game. Chantal Dunbar is nearly averaging a double-double with 9.8 points and 9.9 rebounds per game. Shelby Tricoli (9.4), Andrea Bertrand (8.6) and Kelli Bonner (8.6) round out the group of Wingate's top scoring options.
 
Wingate owns an 11-6 advantage all-time against LMU, but the Lady Railsplitters swept the regular-season series in 2013-14 for the first time in program history. The Lady Railsplitters defeated Wingate 75-71 at Tex Turner Arena and 59-56 in Wingate, N.C. In that meeting in the Bluegrass State, Josey Harding (Middletown, Ohio) scored a career-high 11 points and grabbed five rebounds to help lead the Lady Railsplitters to victory. LMU is just 2-7 all-time in Wingate's Cuddy Arena. 
 
The Lady Railsplitters will aim to turn around their cold shooting, as they've shot just 37.5 percent over their past four games. Lincoln Memorial showed some signs of breaking out of the offensive slump Wednesday, shooting nearly 43 percent for the game with a 15-for-31 effort in the second half.
 
Tip-off between Lincoln Memorial and Wingate is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday at Cuddy Arena in Wingate, N.C. Live stats and a free HD video broadcast will be available for the contest via www.WingateBulldogs.com, while fans can listen along with Voice of the Railsplitters Rusty Peace at WLMU 91.3 the Gap. Pre-game coverage kicks off at 1:40 from Cuddy Arena.

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