HARROGATE, Tenn. – The LMU women's basketball team will take to the road for the next two weeks as they have three South Atlantic Conference contests on the road before their next home game on January 24. First up is a trip to Charlotte for a matchup with the Queens Royals.

LMU enters the game at 9-5 overall on the season, 5-3 in SAC play and riding a four game winning streak dating back to Dec. 19. Most recently they used a strong third quarter and solid defensive performance to defeat Coker 72-59 on Jan. 6.

In that game, Qua Hines scored a career-high 24 as she helped spark yet another dominating third quarter for LMU in their 72-59 win over Coker. The teams traded baskets early on before LMU eventually extended the lead to 37-29 at the half. The Lady Railsplitters then came out in the third quarter and went on a 15-4 run while outscoring Coker 24-13 in the period to blow the game open. In addition to Hines' 24 points, she also had a team high six rebounds and four assists. Rachel Griffith also tied her own career high with 15 points while Shea Coker made history by becoming the 19th Lady Railsplitter to reach 1,000 points in their career with her tenth and final point of the game.

LMU's Play4Kay game this year will be against Newberry on Feb. 3. For more information about the Play4Kay game or the Kay Yow Cancer Fund go to https://support.kayyow.com/team/149961.

Links to live stats and video of the game above or on www.lmurailsplitters.com. You can also hear the game on 91.3 WLMU locally or at www.913thegap.com.

SCOUTING QUEENS
· Queens comes into Saturday's game with a 4-10 overall record and 1-7 record in SAC play. Their lone SAC victory was a 65-62 win at Mars Hill on Jan. 6. They lost at Newberry 61-50 Wednesday evening.

· Sarah Jansen is in her second season at Queens. She took over the position from Susan Yow, who retired to focus her efforts on running the Kay Yow Foundation (They were sisters.) Jansen, who is known for turning around struggling programs, came to Queens after four seasons at Mars Hill. She led Queens to their first-ever SAC Tournament appearance last year (against LMU) and currently has a 9-33 record at Queens and a 50-100 overall record. She played her college ball at USC-Upstate from 2000-04 and in her lone meeting against LMU she had six points and five assists in LMU's 76-52 win over the Spartans on Jan. 5, 2004 in Spartanburg.

 

· The Royals return five players players from last season's team and have seven newcomers, including two transfers. Their biggest loss was McKell Oliverio, who averaged 12.7 points a game and was also one of two CoSIDA Women's Basketball Academic All-America players from the SAC last season. The other? Megan Pittman.

· Lade Adepoju leads the team in scoring and rebounding with 16.4 points and 8.3 rebounds a game. She currently ranks third in the SAC in scoring and fifth in rebounding. Kristian Eanes is second on the team in scoring with an 11.0 per game average while Mendy McNeese is averaging 10.2 points a game. Caitlyn Moore leads the team in assists while Herning Wang is the Royals' blocks leader.

· As a team, Queens is averaging 59.9 points a game while giving up 71.4 points per game. They are also giving up a 3.2 rebounds a game margin and are narrowly being out-shot by their competition 40.2 percent to 42.8 percent.

SERIES HISTORY
· LMU leads the series 12-3. The Lady Railsplitters are a perfect 8-0 against the Royals in Harrogate. All of LMU's losses to Queens have been in Charlotte, with two of the three being by two points or less. In the Evans era, they are 6-1 vs. Coker overall, including three straight wins last season.

· The last meeting between the two was in the opening round of the SAC Tournament on March 1, 2017 in Harrogate. LMU forced 23 Queens turnovers and converted them to 22 points as the Lady Railsplitters led wire-to-wire in the 84-57 victory. Emily Griffith led the way with 18 points, while Megan Pittman and Shea Coker each chipped in 12 points. Ross Mathis added in 11 points. Maggie Stewart led the Royals with 22 points while McKell Oliverio had 11 points.

· In the last meeting in Charlotte, tenth-ranked LMU grabbed the lead late in the second quarter and had to hold off a determined Queens team to pull out the 70-60 win on Jan. 9, 2017. Shea Coker had a then-career high 24 points to lead the Lady Railsplitters in scoring. Megan Pittman had 16 points and a game-high 10 rebounds and four blocks while Ross Mathis chipped in 14 points.

SCOUTING LMU
· Head Coach Krystal Evans is in her fourth season at LMU. She has a 68-37 overall record.

· Shea Coker is currently leading the team in scoring (both two- and three-point) and rebounding, with a 14.2 points and 5.1 rebounds a game average. She currently leads the SAC in three-point percentage and is sixth in offensive rebounds and ninth in points per game.

 · Emily Griffith is second on the team in scoring, averaging 10.6 points a game, and ranks fifth in the SAC in free throw percentage. Emily's twin sister Rachel is close behind at 9.4 points per game and is tied for the team lead in assists with Qua Hines. Cameryn DuBose is second on the team in rebounding, pulling down 4.4 a game, closely followed by Qua Hines with 3.8 per game.

· The third quarter has been LMU's favorite over the past few games. Over their four-game win streak they have outscored opponents 91-47 in that period.

· As a team, LMU leads in the SAC in offensive rebounds per game, is third in points per game, three-point percentage, rebound margin, rebounds per game and field goal attempts per game, fourth in made free throws a game, fifth in field goals made (both two and three), assists per game and steals per game.

· LMU also ranks eleventh in the NCAA in offensive rebounds per game, 39th in rebounds per game, 43rd in rebound margin, 50th in turnovers forced, 64th in scoring offense and 84th in assists per game. Shea Coker is ranked in six national categories. Emily Griffith and Qua Hines are ranked in free throw percentage.

RECORD WATCH
· POINTS –Shea Coker became the 19th Lady Railsplitter to score 1,000 or more points in her career on Jan. 6 against Coker. There have only been two players to date since the end of the Roger Vannoy era in 2007 to break the 1,000 point mark – Dayshalee Salaman scored 1,825 from 2008-12 and former teammate Megan Pittman scored 1,108 from 2014-17. She trails #18 Nickie Snow (1984-88) by 27 points.

· FIELD GOALS – Coker is currently 20th on the made field goals list with 388. She trails Sis Lawhead (1980-82) by five field goals. Coker also ranks 15th in career field goal percentage, hitting 47.6 percent of her field goals.

· THREE-POINTERS - Coker is tied for fifth in made treys with Heather Brown (1993-97) with 116 and is the ninth Lady Railsplitter with 100 or more career three-pointers. She trails fourth place Karra Jackson (1998-02) by 47. Coker is also ninth on the three-point attempts list with 262, and is first on the 3-pt percentage list with a .443 percentage. Ross Mathis is 11th in made treys with 93 and trails #10 Chasity Williams (2002-06) by two. She is 8th on the attempts list with 286 and ranks 13th on the percentage list with 32.5%. Also ranked in the top 50 on the made three-pointer list are Karsen Sims (23rd) Rachel Griffith (30th) and Sydney Duggins (40th).

· ASSISTS – Ross Mathis is 29th in career assists with 153 and trails Destiny Williams (2009-11) by eight. Karsen Sims is tied for 38th on the list with 137 assists with Bridget Long (1990-94) and trails Kara Harris (2007-09) by one.