HARROGATE, Tenn. – The Railsplitters hit a season-high 19 three-pointers, including 11 in the second half alone, to take down the Kentucky Wesleyan Panthers 87-67 at Tex Turner Arena on Wednesday night in the final game of 2018.
 
After a mostly so-so first half of basketball, Lincoln Memorial (8-3) used a 31-6 run that bridged the gap between the first and second half and outscored the visiting Panthers (4-6) 47-32 in total over the final 20 minutes to head into the holiday break with wins in seven of its last eight games. 
 
Despite the lopsided final score, it was a tale of two halves for the Railsplitters. 
 
In the first half, Lincoln Memorial shot 55 percent, but turned the ball over six times while allowing Kentucky Wesleyan to shoot a scorching 52 percent. The Railsplitters trailed briefly at the tail end of the half but went into the break with a 40-35 lead compliments of a late 9-0 run. 
 
Lincoln Memorial turned things around in a big way in the second half, particularly on the defensive end of the floor, where the Railsplitters limited the Panthers to a dismal 35 percent shooting, including a 3-for-13 effort from three-point range. The Railsplitters, meanwhile, went 11-for-21 from three-point territory while posting a 50 percent mark from the field.  
 
"Our guys came out much more intense, much more focused," head coach Josh Schertz said of the second-half turnaround. "I thought we played far better on both sides of the ball. Defensively, we had more force, more presence and we impacted the ball at a greater level. On the offensive end, I thought we were a lot more aggressive."
 
That offensive aggression resulted in a three-point barrage for the Railsplitters that ranks third in program history behind only their South Atlantic Conference record 30 against Mars Hill last season and a 21-triple effort against North Greenville in 2007. 
 
Four different players hit multiple three-pointers for Lincoln Memorial. Cornelius Taylor led that quartet by going 6-for-9 from deep to score a game-high 23 points, which included 15 in the second half. The guard also led the team with six assists. Julius Brown went 5-for-8 from long range to pile up 15 points, while Cameron Henry was a perfect 4-for-4 from three with 16 points, five rebounds and three assists. Courvoisier McCauley added a pair of threes to score 10 points in 20 minutes off the bench. 
 
"It's contagious. The ball starts going in and everybody feels a little better," Schertz said of the shooting display. "Just seeing the ball go in the basket was nice for our guys, because from the three-point line we've made a fair amount, but we have obviously had massive swings in terms of games we've shot it well and games we've shot it abysmally." 
 
Deng Mayot led a group of three Panthers in double figures with 17 points on 6-for-10 shooting. Tarik Dixon sparked Kentucky Wesleyan with 15 points on an unblemished shooting line – 5-for-5 shooting, 2-for-2 on free throws – in 23 minutes off the bench. Adam Goetz chipped in 13 points. 
 
A red-hot start for Henry, who hit three-pointers on three consecutive possessions, carried the torch for the Railsplitters early as they raced out to a commanding 17-9 lead by the 12-minute mark of the opening half. 
 
Lincoln Memorial led by as many as nine points in the first half following a triple from Brown that made it 22-13 with 10:27 left, but a 7-0 Kentucky Wesleyan run nearly erased all of that. 
 
Fast-break buckets from Brown and Kamaran Calhoun extended the Railsplitters' lead back to five with less than five minutes left in the half, but five unanswered points from Dixon, capped by a three-pointer at the 2:36 mark, gave the Panthers a brief 32-31 edge. 
 
That triple seemingly brought the Railsplitters to life, though, as Lincoln Memorial would completely dominate the next 10 minutes of game time, outscoring the visitors 31-6 over that span to assume a 62-38 lead by the 12-minute mark of the second half. 
 
Brown and Taylor were the key figures during that flurry, combining to scoring 30 of the team's 31 points. Brown hit four three-pointers over that stretch, including two during a 9-0 run in the closing minutes of the first half. Taylor, meanwhile, scored 18 points over the span while draining three triples at the onset of the second half. 
 
After that 10-minute stretch of nearly flawless basketball during which they held Kentucky Wesleyan scoreless for an over six-minute period, the Railsplitters never led by less than 16 points. 
 
Quick Hits 
 
- Lincoln Memorial was careful with the basketball, turning it over only 10 times total and four times in the second half. 
 
- The Railsplitters finished with a 26-6 edge in fast-break points. 
 
- Wednesday marked the first-ever meeting between Lincoln Memorial and Kentucky Wesleyan in Harrogate. The Railsplitters improved to 2-6 in the all-time series. 
 
- Lincoln Memorial moved to 5-0 at Tex Turner Arena this season and a combined 83-5 at home over the past six seasons. The Railsplitters also captured their 27th straight regular-season home win. 
 
Up Next 
 
The Railsplitters will take the next 12 days to celebrate the holidays and recover from a grueling early-season stretch before returning to the court on January 1 with a nonconference matchup against North Greenville at Tex Turner Arena. Tip-off is set for 3 p.m.