GREENVILLE, S.C. – The historic year of "firsts" keeps going on for the No. 11/24 Lady Railsplitters, this time it's the program's first appearance in the South Atlantic Conference Tournament Championship game following the 72-67 win over Carson-Newman in the Tournament Semifinals Saturday afternoon.

The Lady Railsplitters, the tournament's top seed, advance to face third-seeded Wingate in the Championship game Sunday at 1 p.m. at Timmons Arena. The winner will receive the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.

LMU improves to 26-3 with the win, tying for fourth place for most wins in a season with the 1989-90 squad. The 26 wins are the most in LMU's NCAA era. The team is ranked 11th in the latest WBCA/USA Today Coaches' Poll and 24th in the D2SIDA National Media Poll.

LMU, which led for all but 54 seconds of the contest, was led by Karsen Sims (Gatlinburg, Tenn.) with a career high 18 points. Josey Harding (Middletown, Ohio) had her ninth double-double of the season with 15 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Shea Coker (Knoxville, Tenn.) added in 14 points and Dasia Maxwell (Knoxville, Tenn.) had three blocks.

For the game, LMU held sway from the field, outshooting the Eagles 46.3% (25-54) to 40.0% (26-65). The Lady Railsplitters also held the advantage behind the arc, shooting 36.4% (4-11) to 30.8% (4-18) by the Eagles. C-N did fare better than LMU at the charity stripe, hitting 73.3% (11-15) of their shots to LMU's 58.1% (18-31). LMU out-rebounded C-N 37-27.

From the beginning, it was obvious that Carson-Newman's game plan was to shut down SAC Player of the Year, Megan Pittman (Liberty, Ky.). They partially succeeded, getting Pittman into early foul trouble that limited her to six points and eight rebounds. C-N's Kayla Newman put the Eagles up 2-0 on the game's first possession, only to see a Coker jumper and Sims trey put LMU ahead 5-2. C-N then went up 11-9 with 4:59 remaining only to see a Harding layup tie it up and after a couple of Eagle misses Maxwell grabbed the rebound and found Ross Mathis (Greer, S.C.) open for a three-pointer to give LMU the lead again with 4:02 remaining. After C-N tied the game up at 14-14 a trey by Sims and jumper by Maxwell put LMU ahead 19-14 with 2:30 left. LMU would not score for the rest of the quarter, but held the Eagles to only a pair of free throws and led 19-16 after the first stanza.

Both teams had long scoring droughts in the second quarter. Carson-Newman did not score for nearly the first five minutes of the quarter. Unfortunately for the Lady Railsplitters, apart from a Pittman free throw they were scoreless for nearly six minutes themselves, which allowed the Eagles to tie the game at 22-22. After LMU went ahead by three, the teams traded baskets until a 4-0 run by the Eagles gave them the 28-27 lead with 1:45 left in the half. It would turn out to be their last lead of the game. After a free throw by Sydney Duggins (Oliver Springs, Tenn.) tied the game again, Coker hit a three-pointer with 38 seconds left to give the Lady Railsplitters the 30-28 lead at the half.

LMU would come out of the locker room and post a 15-7 run to pull out to the 45-35 lead midway through the half. After the teams traded baskets, LMU went scoreless from the field for the next 4:07 of the quarter. The Lady Railsplitters did hit six free throws down this stretch, which along with being more aggressive on defense allowed them to maintain the lead. They would take a 55-47 lead into the final period.

C-N would take advantage of another LMU drought to cut the score to 65-63 with 1:35 left in the game. A Harding jumper would put the Lady Railsplitters back up by four with a minute remaining. The Eagles would cut it to two again on a pair of free throws, but they were forced to foul to get the ball back and Rachel Griffith (Oliver Springs, Tenn.) and Mathis would hit five of six free throws down the stretch to effectively seal the victory and LMU's first trip to the Championship game.

Sunday's title game will be live streamed on ESPN3, with live stats provided by the SAC. The game will also be broadcast by the LMU Sports Network on WLMU 91.3. Live stats for all of these can be found on www.lmurailsplitters.com