HARROGATE, Tenn. -- Gerel Simmons (Accokeek, Md.), Luquon Choice (Laurens, S.C.) and Jalen Steele (Knoxville, Tenn.) combined to score 63 points to power the No. 1 nationally-ranked Railsplitters (31-2) to the program's first-ever Sweet 16 appearance with a 95-67 win over the Queens Royals (25-7) in the semifinal round of the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional on Sunday night at Tex Turner Arena.
 
Lincoln Memorial, which extended its winning streak to 21 games, snaps a string of four straight losses in the second round of the NCAA Tournament and resets the program and South Atlantic Conference record for single-season wins by nabbing its 31st victory of the 2015-16 campaign. The Railsplitters will look to make even more history on Tuesday night, when they face the Lenoir-Rhyne Bears at 7 p.m. with a trip to the Elite Eight in Frisco, Texas on the line.
 
"It's a deeply satisfying win from our team's standpoint," LMU head coach Josh Schertz said. "I'm really proud of these guys to come in and perform the way they did and compete the way they did. It was tremendous. They've been great all year. Their effort and consistency all year has been remarkable from my standpoint."
 
Simmons scored a game-high 25 points on 7-of-14 shooting to go along with five rebounds and four assists, while Choice went 5-for-9 from three-point territory en route to a 22-point performance. Steele chipped in 16 points with three triples.
 
Nobody else scored more than six points for the Railsplitters, but there were tremendous contributions across the board. Dorian Pinson (Greenville, S.C.) finished with six points, seven rebounds and seven assists, while Emanuel Terry (Enterprise, Ala.) posted four points, five rebounds and five blocks, along with countless altered shots at the rim. Four other players contributed five points.
 
The Railsplitters turned in yet another remarkable shooting performance, finishing 32-for-56 from the field for a 57.1 percent clip while knocking down 13 of their 26 three-point attempts. Lincoln Memorial was also stellar at the charity stripe, converting 18 of its 21 free-throw attempts. The Railsplitters were clicking on all cylinders in the second half, scoring 52 points on an absurd 17-for-28 effort (60.7 percent).
 
"This group certainly plays with a lot of joy," Schertz said. "They don't seem to be wowed by the moment. I think in life some people are suffocated by pressure and challenges and other people are inspired by pressure and challenges. These guys are inspired by it. The tougher the challenge the more it seems to bring out their best. And their best is pretty dang good."
 
Lincoln Memorial and Queens jockeyed back and forth through the first three-quarters of the opening half, with neither team establishing a lead larger than five points over the first 15 minutes of action. The Railsplitters actually found themselves trailing 24-23 after Rob Lewis connected on a three-pointer with 7:26 left in the half.
 
But Steele buried a triple in Lincoln Memorial's next possession to give the home team the lead and kick-start a 20-7 closing run. The Railsplitters pushed out to a 34-27 lead on a Choice three at the four-minute mark, but back-to-back buckets by Sean Morgan kept the Royals within striking distance. However, Simmons scored nine unanswered points, including a step-back three-pointer in the closing seconds of the half to send Lincoln Memorial into the break with a 43-31 cushion.
 
"It was toe-to-toe for a while. They were changing defenses and keeping us off balance and you could tell they were holding the ball offensively and running it down to the end of the shot clock," Schertz said. "Once we got that separation it took that part away and they didn't want to hold the ball as much. That allowed the game to get more tempo and that obviously played to our favor."
 
The Royals scored two quick buckets to open the second half, but the Railsplitters responded with an 18-4 flurry to cruise out to a 52-35 lead with 16 minutes left to play. Simmons was the sparkplug over that stretch, scoring 15 of LMU's 18 points.
 
A short-lived 6-0 run pulled the Royals back within 11 at 55-44, but Lincoln Memorial answered with yet another lengthy run, this time a 23-3 spurt that chewed up five minutes of game clock and made it a commanding 78-47 lead with eight and a half minutes remaining.
 
The lead would never dip below 25 points after that, as the Railsplitters breezed by Queens and into the Sweet 16. Lincoln Memorial limited Queens to just 34.4 percent shooting in the second half.
 
Morgan led the Royals with 21 points and eight rebounds, while Marquis Rankin had 17 points, three rebounds and three assists. Rob Lewis had 11 points, as the Royals' season draws to a close with a 25-7 overall record.
 
After a day of rest, Lincoln Memorial will face a familiar foe for their Sweet 16 match-up, tangling with the seventh-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne Bears on Tuesday at 7 p.m. with the winner advancing to the advancing to the Elite Eight at Dr. Pepper Arena in Frisco, Texas. The seventh-seeded Bears defeated King on Saturday and Wingate on Sunday to set up Tuesday's regional final clash with the Railsplitters.
 
"Lenoir-Rhyne has given us the toughest games out of anybody in our league," Schertz said. "They present a lot of problems and they are a very good team. We will have to be ready to play. You're not going to get to the regional final and get a gimme. They've got outstanding coaching and personnel and that's why they're here. We've just got to go out and give our best and hope that's good enough."
 
The Railsplitters won both regular-season meetings against Lenoir-Rhyne, but it was far from easy to accomplish that feat. Lincoln Memorial defeated the Bears 123-122 in a four-overtime slugfest on December 2 before overcoming an 18-point first-half deficit to down Lenoir-Rhyne 86-75 on January 30 at Tex Turner Arena.
 
"We've still got to be focused. You can't worry about what's happened in the past, you can only worry about what's in front of you," senior guard Gerel Simmons said. "We have to go in Monday and work in practice to prepare for Tuesday. Then we have to go into Tuesday with our mind's focused on getting the job done. There are still games to come if we win that." 
 
Lincoln Memorial and Lenoir-Rhyne face off in the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional final on Tuesday at 7 p.m. back at Tex Turner Arena. The winner of that contest moves on the Elite Eight, which begins on March 23 in Frisco, Texas.