HARROGATE, Tenn. – The LMU women's basketball team closes out a two game South Atlantic Conference home stand when they welcome the Coker Cobras to the Tex Turner Arena Saturday afternoon.

LMU enters the game at 8-5 overall on the season and 4-3 in the SAC after another dominating third quarter in their 71-68 victory over Anderson. AU rolled out to an early seven point lead and held that lead for the rest of the half, leading 40-32 at the half. LMU roared out in the third quarter and outscored the Trojans 26-11 in the period to take a 58-51 lead going into the final stanza. AU cut the lead to two late but the Lady Railsplitters held on for the 71-68 victory. LMU was led by Emily Griffith and Shea Coker, who had 16 points each. Ross Mathis chipped in 12 points while Jordan Brightwell had a career-high seven rebounds to lead the team.

At halftime of the women's game the 2002-03 team will be recognized as part of LMU's Railsplitter Legends series. The 2002-03 team went 21-9 overall and won the Gulf South Conference Eastern Division with a 12-4 conference record. They became the first LMU team to earn a NCAA Tournament bid.

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 COKER
· Coker (no affiliation with LMU's own Shea Coker) are currently 6-6 overall and 3-3 in SAC play. They come into the game riding a three-game winning streak with wins at home over Mars Hill, Queens and Newberry.

· Shannon Johnson is in her third year as head coach of the Cobras. The former WNBA and ABL All-Star and Olympic Gold Medalist has a 21-46 overall record. In addition to winning the Gold Medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics, Johnson also has gold medals from playing for the United States in the Jones Cup, World University Games and the FIBA World Championship for Women.

· The Cobras return eleven players from last season's team and Coach Johnson brought in six newcomers.

· Hayley Kropp leads the team in scoring with an average of 12.8 points a game. Erin Houser is second on the team, averaging 9.8 points a game and Janea Williams is third with an 8.9 average. Williams also leads the team in rebounds with an 8.5 rebounds per game average, followed by Houser, who is averaging 6.4 rebounds a game. Aloni McFarland's 2.3 assists per game leads the team.

· As a team, Coker is averaging 70.2 points a game while holding opponents to 68.1 points per game. They are also out-rebounding the competition by a 4.4 per-game margin on average and are narrowly out-shooting the competition 38.7 percent to 38.2 percent. They aren't afraid to shoot the ball and crash the boards offensively as they rank second in the SAC in both field goal attempts and offensive rebounds a game. They also rank third in rebounds per game, steals per game and fourth in blocks per game.

SERIES HISTORY
· Coker leads the overall series 5-4. LMU is 2-3 against the Cobras in Harrogate. In the Evans era, they are 4-2 vs. Coker overall and 2-1 in Harrogate.

· The last meeting between the two was on Jan. 21, 2017 in Hartsville. Coker out-shot LMU from the field and from behind the arc and also out-rebounded LMU 45-32. However, the Lady Railsplitters never trailed and won 85-65. Megan Pittman had 15 points, Sydnie Anderson scored 11 and Karsen Sims chipped in 10 points.

· In the last meeting in Harrogate, LMU opened up with an 8-0 run and never looked back in the 83-62 win on Dec. 3, 2016. The 8-0 start was somewhat fitting as the win improved LMU to 8-0 on the season. Shea Coker led the team with 20 points, Megan Pittman had 13 points and 13 rebounds and Karsen Sims had 12 points and five assists.

SCOUTING LMU
· Head Coach Krystal Evans is in her fourth season at LMU. She has a 67-37 overall record.

· Shea Coker is currently leading the team in scoring (both two- and three-point) and rebounding, with a 14.5 points and 5.2 rebounds a game average. She currently leads the SAC in three-point percentage and is sixth in offensive rebounds, seventh in made field goals, eighth in made three pointers and total points, and ninth in points per game.

 · Emily Griffith is second on the team in scoring, averaging 10.8 points a game, and ranks eighth in the SAC in free throw percentage. Emily's twin sister Rachel is close behind at 9.0 points per game and leads the team in assists. Cameryn DuBose is second on the team in rebounding, pulling down 4.1 a game, closely followed by Qua Hines with 3.7 per game.

· As a team, LMU leads in the SAC in offensive rebounds per game, is third in three-point percentage, fourth in rebound margin, rebounds per game, total rebounds, field goals made, assists per game and points per game. They rank fifth in made free throws and steals per game.

· LMU also ranks ninth in the NCAA in offensive rebounds per game, 45th in rebounds per game, 50th in total rebounds, 50th in rebounds per game, and 63rd in turnovers forced. Shea Coker is ranked in seven national categories, including third in the nation in three-point percentage. Emily Griffith and Qua Hines are ranked in free throw percentage.

RECORD WATCH
· POINTS –Shea Coker needs just ten points to become the 19th Lady Railsplitter to score 1,000 or more points in her career. 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. Shea is currently 19th in the career scoring ranks and trails 18th-ranked Nickie Snow (1984-88) by 37 points.

· FIELD GOALS – Coker is tied for 20th with Andi Winney (2006-09) on the made field goals list. She trails Sis Lawhead (1980-82) by nine field goals. Coker also ranks 15th in career field goal percentage, hitting 48.3 percent of her field goals.

· THREE-POINTERS - Coker is tied for fifth in made treys with Heather Brown (1993-97) with 1116 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 260, and is first on the 3-pt percentage list with a .446 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 282 and ranks 12th on the percentage list with 33.0%. Also ranked in the top 50 on the made three-pointer list are Karsen Sims (23rd) Rachel Griffith (35th) and Sydney Duggins (40th).

· ASSISTS – Ross Mathis is tied for 29th in career assists with 150 with Hillary Ross (2000-04). She trails Destiny Williams (2009-11) by eleven. 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.