SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Redshirt-senior guard Luquon Choice (Laurens, S.C.) scored 17 of his game-high 22 points in the second half as the Railsplitters used a late 15-1 run to defeat the Chico State Wildcats 74-61 and advance to the national semifinals of the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championship on Wednesday night at Sanford Pentagon.
 
Lincoln Memorial (30-5) is on to the Final Four for the second consecutive season and will face No. 1 nationally-ranked and No. 2 seed Northwest Missouri State for the right to play in the National Championship game at 9:30 p.m. (ET) on Thursday. Chico State ends its season with a 26-8 mark.
 
"They (Chico State) gave us fits with their size and their athleticism," head coach Josh Schertz said. "We played much better in the second half for the most part… ball moved better, bodies moved better and we were able to get some good looks. I thought we guarded them fairly well and competed well on the backboards."
 
"This game kind of epitomizes our season. It's not always a thing of beauty. We have two freshman point guards and we lost our two leading scorers from last year. We've evolved into a tough and gritty group and rode the backs of our defense and rebounding. To get a 13-point win when we were maybe not at our best shows some of the intangible stuff I'm talking about."
 
The Railsplitters and Wildcats were mired in a defensive struggle for the majority of the contest, as neither team shot above 45 percent for the game. The first half was particularly ugly for both sides, as Lincoln Memorial shot 33.3 percent and went 1-for-9 from deep, while Chico State posted a 34.4 percent clip and a 2-of-6 mark from three over that same span.
 
The game featured 15 ties and 16 lead changes, but the Railsplitters eventually broke through and pulled away in the second half. Lincoln Memorial went 16-for-29 (55.2 percent) from the field over the final 20 minutes while holding the Wildcats to 12-for-35 (34.3 percent) shooting.
 
Choice's individual performance was a microcosm of the Railsplitters' game as a whole. The D2CCA and NABC All-American had just five points on 2-of-11 shooting in the first half, but went 5-for-6 from the floor and 2-for-2 from three to score 17 points in the second half. He finished with a game-high 22 points to go along with five rebounds.
 
"Second half I just had to let it come to me," Choice said. "In the first half, I was kind of forcing bad shots so I just had to let the game come to me and I started making shots."   
 
Paul Woodson (Cincinnati, Ohio) added 13 points on 5-of-6 shooting and 10 rebounds to notch just his second double-double of the season. The redshirt-senior sparked the Railsplitters early in the second stanza, scoring the Railsplitters' first seven points of the half.
 
"I was just playing within myself and playing within our offense," Woodson said. "We have a good motion offense so it gets me open shots and I felt comfortable taking them and I was making them."
 
Emanuel Terry (Enterprise, Ala.) and Chris Perry (Bartow, Fla.) both battled foul trouble and combined to play only 40 minutes, but that duo made an impact on the outcome. Perry had 10 points and eight rebounds while drawing numerous fouls on Chico State's low-post threats Marvin Timothy and Justin Briggs. Terry contributed eight points and grabbed a career-high 16 rebounds.
 
Chico State was paced by Robert Duncan's 18 points, six assists and five rebounds, while Isaiah Ellis had 16 points on 6-of-19 shooting to go along with a team-leading 10 rebounds. Corey Silverstrom was the only other Wildcat player to finish in double figures with 10 points on 4-for-17 shooting.
 
The Railsplitters couldn't buy a basket early in the first half, starting just 3-for-16 from the field. Chico State wasn't much better, but still established a 13-9 lead following a pair of free throws by Duncan at the 10:46 mark.
 
Lincoln Memorial rallied back and took an 18-17 lead on an old-fashioned three-point play by Perry right before the under-8 media timeout, but the Wildcats answered with a 7-0 run to take their largest lead of the game at 24-18 on a bucket from Duncan with 5:58 left in the half.
 
The Railsplitters then answered with an 8-0 flurry, using two free throws by Cornelius Taylor (Claxton, Ga.) – two of his four points in the game – to grab a 28-26 lead with a little less than three minutes left. Chico State retook the lead late in the half before a basket from Hunter Spaw (Bean Station, Tenn.) sent the Railsplitters into the break with a 30-29 edge.
 
The two teams continued to go back and forth early in the second half.
 
Back-to-back buckets from Woodson pushed the Railsplitters out to a 34-29 lead, but Chico State battled back and jumped ahead 39-38 on a dunk by Ellis with 15:58 left. Neither team was able to establish a lead larger than two points over the next passage of play until a three-pointer and lay-up by Choice put the Railsplitters up 52-49 with 11:30 to go.
 
Chico State tied the game twice over the next stretch, making it a 54-54 game on a bucket by Briggs with eight minutes left. However, that would be the Wildcats' last field goal until the two-minute mark, as the Railsplitters churned out a 15-1 run to put the game out of reach.
 
A floater by Deshawn Patterson (Lenoir, N.C.), who finished with 11 points off the bench, gave the Railsplitters their largest lead up to that point with a 60-54 cushion with 5:31 to play. Jalen McFerren briefly stopped the run with a free throw, but three free throws and a tip-in from Terry increased LMU's lead to 65-55 with four minutes to go. Choice capped that spurt with two free throws and another bucket to make it a 69-55 game with just over two minutes left.
 
Lincoln Memorial never led by less than 10 points after that, while Terry put the exclamation point on the win with a thunderous dunk with nine seconds left.
 
The win moved Lincoln Memorial to 20-1 in its last 21 games, and also gave the Railsplitters their third consecutive 30-win season. Prior to this stretch, the LMU men's basketball program had just one 30-win season in its history – the 1976-77 campaign.
 
Up Next
 
The Railsplitters will try to book their second consecutive trip to the NCAA Division II National Championship on Thursday at 9:30 (ET) when they face No. 1 nationally-ranked Northwest Missouri State. The Bearcats defeated St. Thomas Aquinas 79-70 in the third Elite Eight game on Wednesday night.
 
Quick Hits
 
The Railsplitters outrebounded the Wildcats 52-39, including a 27-17 edge in the second half…Lincoln Memorial also outscored Chico State 50-34 in the paint…The Railsplitters left 12 points on the table at the free-throw line, where they finished 15-for-27 in the contest