HARROGATE, Tenn. -- Charles Clark and Carson Brooks led a high-powered offensive attack and combined for 50 points as the Carson-Newman Eagles (11-10, 9-6 SAC) upset the top-ranked Railsplitters (20-1, 14-1 SAC) 87-72 at Tex Turner Arena on Wednesday night. The loss ends Lincoln Memorial's streaks of 20 consecutive wins, 25 straight South Atlantic Conference victories and 25 consecutive triumphs in Harrogate.
 
Carson-Newman carved up the nation's top field-goal percentage defense, shooting 50 percent from the field (32-for-64). Prior to Wednesday's contest, the Railsplitters had allowed an opponent to shoot better than 40 percent only four times, with Coker's 43.1 percent clip standing as the most efficient of those four. The Eagles became the first team to top the 50-percent plateau against LMU since Montevallo made 54 percent of its shots in the semifinals of the 2014 NCAA Southeast Regional.
 
Lincoln Memorial, meanwhile, endured its worst shooting performance of the season. The Railsplitters shot 37.7 percent (26-for-69) from the floor and went 9-for-27 from three-point territory. The Railsplitters have not shot worse than 38 percent since Carson-Newman held them to 36 percent shooting in a 69-77 loss on February 22, 2012.
 
The Railsplitters' shooting woes were most clearly expressed in the struggles of Luquon Choice (Laurens, S.C.) and Lorenza Ross (Savannah, Ga.). Choice led the Railsplitters with 18 points, but he went 5-for-17 from the field. All five of his made field goals came from behind the three-point line. Ross dished out nine assists but he needed 16 shots to score 12 points. Keenan Peterson (College Park, Ga.) was the Railsplitters' most efficient scorer, pitching in 10 points on 5-of-10 shooting. He finished just shy of his third straight double-double with nine boards. Gerel Simmons (Accokeek, Md.) added 11 points with a pair of three-pointers.
 
A basket by Dorian Pinson (Greenville, S.C.) pressed the Railsplitters in front 7-2 at the 17:55 mark, but the Eagles went 10-for-14 from the field and outscored the home team 23-10 over the next nine and a half minutes, taking a 25-17 lead on a bucket by Clark with 8:18 left in the half. Two buckets by Ross wedged around an Emanuel Terry (Birmingham, Ala.) dunk cut the deficit to two points, but a 14-4 spurt put LMU in its largest hole of the season at 39-27 with 1:47 left in the frame. Pinson and Ross scored back-to-back baskets to send the Railsplitters into the break trailing 39-31.
 
That deficit ultimately proved too much to overcome, though, as the Eagles' two star players had an answer for every Railsplitter run. Lincoln Memorial trimmed the margin to eight with 15:56 left before Brooks generated an old-fashioned three-point play to extend the lead to 51-40. The Railsplitters pulled to within seven after scores by Simmons and Peterson with 9:01 remaining, but Brooks capped a 7-0 Carson-Newman run with a tip-in and a layup. Lincoln Memorial made one last push, cutting it to 74-66 on a Choice triple with 4:15 left. Brooks and Clark then single-handedly powered a 7-0 flurry that gave the Eagles an 81-66 advantage and put the game out of reach. The Railsplitters hit two more threes in the final two minutes, but Carson-Newman closed it out by going 6-for-8 from the charity stripe down the stretch.
 
The Eagles finished with a gaudy 64 percent clip in the second half (16-for-25), while the Railsplitters went just 12-for-38 from the field (31.6 percent). 
 
Charles Clark poured in 30 points on 11-of-17 shooting and a 6-of-7 mark at the free throw line, while Carson Brooks amassed 20 points and 11 rebounds in just 26 minutes of work. Sawyer Williams backed that duo with 14 points and seven rebounds in 35 minutes of burn.
 
Wednesday marked LMU's first double-digit loss at home in almost two years. Newberry was the last to do it as the Wolves topped the Railsplitters 113-98 in Harrogate on February 9, 2013.
 
The Railsplitters - who entered the game ranked third in the nation in rebounding margin - were outrebounded for just the third time this season. Carson-Newman manned a 45-35 advantage on the glass, but the Railsplitters scored 16 second-chance points on 14 offensive rebounds. The Eagles won the battle in the paint, outscoring the Railsplitters inside the square 48-32.
 
The loss comes just a day after the Railsplitters earned the program's second-ever No. 1 national ranking. The Railsplitters have lost within the first week of taking over the top spot in the NABC/Division II poll both times, as they suffered an overtime loss at Anderson in January, 2012.
 
The Railsplitters look to bounce back on Saturday, traveling to Newberry, S.C. for a SAC draw against the Newberry Wolves. That contest is slated to tip off at 4 p.m.