HARROGATE, Tenn. -- Another brilliant regular season comes to a close for the third-ranked Railsplitters (26-1, 20-1 SAC) on Saturday afternoon as they venture to Salisbury, N.C. and collide with the red-hot Catawba Indians (14-13, 11-10 SAC) for a 4 p.m. tip-off.
 
Lincoln Memorial clinched its third consecutive league regular season title way back on February 14 with a 69-37 win over Lenoir-Rhyne, and the separation between the Railsplitters and the league's second-place team (currently Newberry) has since grown to seven games. Regardless of the outcome in Saturday's contest, Lincoln Memorial will blow away the previous watermark for the widest gap between the league champion and the second-place finisher in SAC history. The Railsplitters tied the largest margin in SAC history last season with a four-game lead over second-place Carson-Newman.
 
The Railsplitters' 2014-15 season resume already speaks for itself - a sixth consecutive 20-win season, a fifth straight 25-win season, a third straight SAC regular season title, and a brief tenure with the No. 1 national ranking. Lincoln Memorial is all but assured a fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, but head coach Josh Schertz's squad is hoping it has the ingredients to take the program's next step with a deep postseason run.
 
The pieces are in place as the Railsplitters are in a familiar position heading into the closing stretch: slotted No. 2 in the NCAA Division II Southeast Region rankings. The No. 1 team in the final region rankings - which will be unveiled on March 8 - earns the all-important right to host the Southeast Regional. Lincoln Memorial has been the Southeast Region's No. 2 seed in three of the past four seasons. 
 
The margin is razor thin between Lincoln Memorial and Mount Olive, the current No. 1 ranked team in the region, in the battle to host the Southeast Regional. In order to retain the chance of bringing the region tournament to Tex Turner Arena, the Railsplitters must take care of business against a young, talented and surging Catawba squad on the road Saturday.
 
The Indians have won six of their eight games in February, putting themselves right in the thick of the South Atlantic Conference standings with an 11-10 league mark. Catawba had won five games in a row before succumbing to a gaudy shooting effort from the visiting Queens Royals on Wednesday night 94-76. The Indians shot 48.3 percent, but allowed the Royals to go 34-for-54 (63 percent) from the field and knock down 22 free throws in the loss.
 
That is not a completely anomalous performance for the Indians, who are in the bottom third of the conference in field-goal percentage defense (45.7 percent). Catawba is one of just four teams in the league allowing more than 78 points per game.
 
But the Indians do feature a young and talented roster with a bevy of shot makers that has the ability to put up points in bunches. Catawba attempts more than 62 shots per game and scores 77.6 points per appearance, ranking third in the league in that category.
 
Catawba boasts a dynamic one-two punch in KJ Arrington and Jerrin Morrison. Arrington is scoring 17.9 points per game on 46.9 percent shooting while leading the team with seven rebounds per appearance. Morrison, meanwhile, is contributing 15.6 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. Morrison is connecting on 41.7 percent of his three-point attempts. Guard Jameel Taylor is backing that tandem with 10 points and 4.6 rebounds per game.
 
The Indians pushed the Railsplitters down to the wire in the first meeting between the two teams, but Lincoln Memorial ultimately prevailed 86-76 in Harrogate on January 24. The Railsplitters led by 17 points with 9:30 remaining in regulation before the Indians whittled the margin to as little as seven points with 21 seconds left. The final deficit would have been much greater if not for LMU's paltry 22-for-36 (61.1 percent) effort at the charity stripe.
 
Luquon Choice (Laurens, S.C.) paced the Railsplitters with 20 points, Lorenza Ross (Savannah, Ga.) added 19 points, nine assists and five rebounds, and Gerel Simmons (Accokeek, Md.) poured in 14 points in 23 minutes off the bench. Arrington carried Catawba with 22 points, while Morrison pitched in 16 points. That pair needed 31 combined shot attempts to amass those numbers.
 
The Railsplitters arrive in Salisbury fresh off of arguably their most complete performance of the 2014-15 season in a 91-61 thumping of the Carson-Newman Eagles in Jefferson City, Tenn. on Wednesday evening. Lincoln Memorial avenged its only loss of the season in gratifying fashion, shooting 50.8 percent from the field, limiting the Eagles to 36 percent shooting and dominating the interior 38-14. Choice matched a career-high with 34 points on seven three-pointers. Ross accounted for a double-double with 12 points, 11 assists and zero turnovers in 38 minutes.
 
Since falling to Carson-Newman on February 4, the Railsplitters have ripped off six consecutive wins. Lincoln Memorial hits the Goodman Gym floor riding the nation's longest road winning streak with 13 straight road triumphs.
 
The Railsplitters crushed Catawba 111-90 in last season's meeting in Salisbury, but the Indians handed Lincoln Memorial a 73-63 loss in Goodman Gym on February 2, 2013. The 'Splitters have won three of the last four in Salisbury.
 
Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. on Saturday. Live stats, video and audio links will all be accessible through www.LMURailsplitters.com.

Video
Live Stats
Audio