HICKORY, N.C. – A dominating fourth quarter broke open a close game and propelled the No. 5/6 Lady Railsplitters to their 19th win of the season with the 77-57 South Atlantic Conference win at Lenoir-Rhyne Saturday afternoon.

With the win, LMU continues their unbeaten streak and improves to 19-0 overall and 14-0 in SAC play. The team is currently ranked sixth in the latest WBCA/USA Today Coaches' Poll and fifth in the D2SIDA National Media Poll.

The win was also the 50^th career win for LMU head coach Krystal Evans, who is in her third season at the helm of the Lady Railsplitter program.

Megan Pittman (Liberty, Ky.) and Shea Coker (Knoxville, Tenn.) led LMU in scoring with 19 points each. Pittman also notched her tenth double-double of the season as she led all players with 12 rebounds. Freshman Sydney Duggins (Oliver Springs, Tenn.) tied her career high with 12 points.

The Bears had three players in double figures, led by Brooke Robinson and Justyce Swango with 13 points apiece. Madi Suddreth chipped in 12 points for L-R.

For the game, LMU out-shot the Bears 42.4%-to-38.9% from the field and 40.9%–to-16.7% from three-point range. LMU hit nine treys in the contest. L-R won the battle at the free throw line, hitting 70.6% to LMU's 69.2% from the charity stripe. The Lady Railsplitters had 22 points off of turnovers, the Bears had 10. LMU also bested the Bears in points in the paint (20-18), second-chance points (19-6) and bench points (27-10).

Lenoir-Rhyne came out of the gates with the hot shooting touch, hitting all six of their first shots and taking an early 14-10 lead. LMU eventually tied it up with a free throw by Harding with 49 seconds left, but L-R hit two quick baskets to pull out to the 21-17 lead. Rachel Griffith would cut the lead to 21-19 with a basket at the buzzer.

The second quarter was a see-saw affair, with LMU getting their first lead of the game off a pair of Duggins free throws with 5:35 remaining. Both teams traded baskets, eventually tying the game 31-31 with 2:57 left. LMU then went on a 9-2 run to close out the half, holding the Bears to two free throws down the stretch and taking a 40-33 lead into the locker room.

The Lady Railsplitters built their lead to 12 on two occasions in the third. The Bears made a late run, taking advantage of some LMU turnovers, to cut the lead to 55-51 with 52 seconds remaining. Duggins would hit a running layup 20 seconds later to make the score 57-51 going into the fourth stanza.

LMU came out in the fourth quarter and totally dominated the Bears defensively holding them to only six points on 2-of-12 shooting from the field and 0-5 from three point range for the quarter. LMU had an 18-2 LMU run over 8:07 of the period.

LMU will travel to Brevard for a Wednesday night meeting with the Brevard College Tornados. Brevard enters the contest ranked 11^th in the SAC with a 5-13 overall record and a 1-13 record in SAC play. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m. and live stats, video and audio links can be found at www.lmurailsplitters.com.