HARROGATE, Tenn. – The No. 4 Railsplitters (7-0) resume their four-game home stand and take a brief break from South Atlantic Conference play to host NAIA foe Bluefield College (6-2) at 8 p.m. on Wednesday night at Tex Turner Arena.
 
Lincoln Memorial continued its dominant start to the 2017-18 campaign on Saturday evening with a thorough 103-58 dismantling of the short-handed Catawba Indians to kick off the team's four-game stay at Tex Turner Arena. Missing preseason All-SAC selections Jameel Taylor and Jerrin Morrison, Catawba was no match for the Railsplitters, who turned in their most complete performance of the season by shooting 52 percent from the field, burying a season-high 16 three-pointers and taking a 61-27 lead into the break. With the win, the Railsplitters are off to their fourth 7-0 start since the beginning of the 2010-11 season.
 
Senior guard Trevon Shaw was brilliant once again in the win over Catawba, scoring a game-high 25 points on 8-for-15 shooting, including six three-pointers. The St. Helena Island, S.C. native is ranked second in the league in scoring and has crossed the 20-point threshold in four of his seven appearances this season. He is shooting 50 percent from the field and 49 percent from deep.
 
Sophomore guard Cornelius Taylor played what head coach Josh Schertz dubbed as the most mature game of his career at Lincoln Memorial against Catawba, scoring 19 points in the first half to pile up a season-high 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting. He also contributed five of the team's 21 assists.  
 
Through seven games, the Railsplitters are ranked either first or second in the SAC in scoring, field goals made per game, field-goal percentage, three-point field-goal percentage, total rebounds per game, rebounding margin, assists per game, fewest turnovers per game, scoring defense and field-goal percentage defense. Lincoln Memorial is outscoring its opponents by an average of nearly 30 points per game. The team has won all but one of its games by at least 20 points, and that one outlier was a wire-to-wire 91-73 triumph at Tusculum.
 
The Railsplitters are 6-1 all-time against Bluefield College, an NAIA program out of Bluefield, Va. However, the two teams have met just once since the turn of the century, a 101-75 LMU win at Tex Turner Arena on December 9, 2015. Prior to that, the Railsplitters had not played the Rams since 1994. Bluefield hasn't beaten Lincoln Memorial since November of 1994 in the first of two meetings that season.
 
Bluefield is off to a 6-2 start that includes several lopsided wins and a number of blowout losses. In their last two appearances, the Rams topped Newport News Apprentice School 108-77 and blew past Allen University 90-65. Prior to that, the Rams lost to Belmont Abbey 99-82 in one of just two games against NCAA foes this season. The Rams were also handed an 88-67 loss by the University of Pikeville.
 
6-2 guard Jorge Concepion III is one of five Bluefield players averaging double figures, leading the team with 16.5 points per game on 45 percent shooting. David Tripp – a 6-4 swingman – is putting up 11.3 points and 7.4 rebounds per game, while Jermiah Jenkins, Gage Yesbeck and Ty'Quon Reid are adding right at 10 points per game.
 
In the Rams' 31-point win over Newport News Apprentice School on Saturday, Yesbeck and Shawn Robinson led the team with 21 points apiece. Concepcion put up 16 points, while Tripp piled up 13 points and 14 rebounds for a monster double-double. Bluefield shot 48 percent from the field and went 28-for-34 at the free-throw line.
 
The Railsplitters are trying to extend their longest season-opening winning streak since the 2014-15 season to eight games. A win would mark the fourth 8-0 start of the decade.
 
Tip off between Lincoln Memorial and Bluefield is set for 8 p.m. on Wednesday night. Live stats and video links are available at www.lmurailsplitters.com. Fans can also listen to a play-by-play call with Voice of the Railsplitters Rusty Peace at WLMU 91.3 The Gap.   
 
Quick Hits
 
- Senior center Emanuel Terry will be looking to bounce back from a forgettable performance against Catawba, as the Enterprise, Ala. native was limited to a season-low two points and five rebounds in 10 foul-plagued minutes. He is averaging 18.0 points and 11.1 rebounds per game this season.
 
- The Railsplitters have produced two 60-point halves this season, scoring 62 points in the second half of their win over Virginia-Wise and 61 in the first half of Saturday's game against Catawba. The 2015-16 team was the last to account for two 60-point halves in the same season.
 
- Lincoln Memorial has not lost a regular-season game at home against a nonconference opponent since December 9, 2008. In addition to that, the Railsplitters are 131-13 at Tex Turner Arena in 10 season under head coach Josh Schertz.
 
- After Carson-Newman's loss on Saturday, the Railsplitters are one of only two remaining undefeated teams in the South Atlantic Conference along with No. 2 nationally-ranked Queens. Both LMU and Queens are 7-0 overall and 2-0 in league play.
 
- After Wednesday's game, the Railsplitters will get a brief break before playing four games over an eight-day span, a stretch that concludes with a highly-anticipate showdown against the defending national champion and No. 1 ranked Northwest Missouri State Bearcats on December 19 in Owensboro, Ky.