EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- The No. 5 Alabama-Huntsville Chargers (3-1) defeated the No. 2 Railsplitters (3-1) 91-67 to hand Lincoln Memorial its worst loss since 2008 on Saturday evening inside of the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind. as part of the inaugural Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic.
 
In a highly-anticipated clash between two of the winningest programs in the NCAA Division II over the past decade, the Chargers led wire-to-wire, built as large as a 31-point lead and sent the Railsplitters back to Harrogate with their worst loss of the Josh Schertz era.
 
"That's probably as disappointing of a performance that we've had here in my tenure as the head coach," Schertz said. "Tough and smart wins, and we are not either of those things and Alabama-Huntsville is. I'll put it in a nice term; we are a very finesse team right now.
 
"Credit to them, they exposed the issues that I think have been lingering with this team. It's a general lack of toughness and lack of attention to detail. Until we get those cleared up, we're not a very good basketball team. We're not right now and we've got to go back to work and try and get good enough to be competitive on Tuesday."
 
Almost everything went wrong for Lincoln Memorial while almost everything went right for Alabama-Huntsville.
 
The Chargers shot 55 percent from the field, connecting on 33 of their 60 shot attempts including a 20-for-32 effort (62.5 percent) in the first half. The Railsplitters shot 40 percent from the field while converting just four of their 18 three-point attempts and seven of their 18 free throws. Alabama-Huntsville also dominated the backboards, outrebounding the Railsplitters 47-31.
 
All of that added up to Lincoln Memorial's worst loss since the tail end of the 2007-08 campaign, when Wingate handed the Railsplitters a 29-point loss on February 2.
 
Redshirt-freshman Cornelius Taylor (Claxton, Ga.) led the Railsplitters with a career-high 14 points, but he needed 14 shots to reach that mark. Luquon Choice (Laurens, S.C.) finished with 10 points and six rebounds over 40 minutes of action, going 4-for-10 from the field during that span. Chris Perry (Bartow, Fla.) notched 10 points and eight rebounds in 19 minutes of work off the bench. Deshawn Patterson (Lenoir, N.C.) contributed a career-high nine points in 16 minutes, while Dorian Pinson (Greenville, S.C.) had seven points and seven rebounds.
 
Malik Cook-Stroupe led the Chargers with a game-high 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting, while Brandon Roberts had 17 points on 7-for-12 shooting. Seab Webster put up a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds in just 21 minutes of action. Justin Ward and Troy Saxton chipped in nine points apiece.
 
Alabama-Huntsville never trailed in the contest, but the Railsplitters kept pace with the Chargers through the early going in the first half, as a three-pointer by Patterson pulled LMU within three at 14-11 with just over 13 minutes left in the half.
 
However, that's where things went awry for Lincoln Memorial. The next two and half minutes saw Alabama-Huntsville score 11 unanswered points to assume a 25-11 lead on a pair of free throws from Cook-Stroupe. The Railsplitters whittled the Chargers' lead back to 33-24 by the seven-minute mark on a bucket by Taylor, but UAH countered with a 10-0 run, taking a 43-24 lead on a basket from Roberts. Lincoln Memorial would go into the break trailing 53-34.
 
Foul trouble haunted the Railsplitters in the opening half, as defensive anchor Emanuel Terry (Enterprise, Ala.) was whistled for his second foul just six minutes in, while Pinson drew his third foul at the 8:32 mark of the half.
 
The Railsplitters' deficit shrunk to 17 points on an offensive rebound and putback by Perry at the 17:29 mark of the second half, but Alabama-Huntsville answered with an 11-2 run, which put the Chargers ahead 66-39 with a shade over 14 minutes left in regulation.
 
Lincoln Memorial never trailed by less than 21 points after that while Alabama-Huntsville raced out to as large as a 31-point on three different occasions.
 
The Railsplitters return to action on Tuesday, November 22 when they head to Jefferson City, Tenn. and Holt Fieldhouse to face the Carson-Newman Eagles in the South Atlantic Conference opener. That game is scheduled to tip off at 8 p.m.