GREENVILLE, S.C. – The No. 1 Railsplitters (28-1) will try to earn their sixth straight trip to the South Atlantic Conference Championship title game on Saturday when they face the fourth-seeded Wingate Bulldogs (15-14) at Furman's Timmons Arena. Tip-off between Lincoln Memorial and Wingate in the SAC semifinals is set for 5 p.m. The winner advances to Sunday's championship game to face either two-seeded Queens or three-seeded Carson-Newman at 4 p.m.
 
Lincoln Memorial booked its spot in the SAC semifinals and moved to 17-4 in SAC tournament play since 2011 with a 90-62 win over the Anderson Trojans on Wednesday night at Tex Turner Arena. The Railsplitters, who also pushed their winning streak to 17 with the victory, used a dominant opening half highlight by a 27-4 run to lay waste to the Trojans. Dorian Pinson led the way with 19 points, 10 rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks, while Cornelius Taylor added 14 points and four assists. Trevon Shaw scored 12 points as did Rhondi Hackett, which surpassed his previous career-high mark.
 
Wingate advanced to the SAC semifinals with a gritty 76-75 overtime win against Coker on Wednesday. The Bulldogs trailed by as many as 11 points and faced a five-point deficit with less than two minutes to play before rallying to force overtime on their home court. Emarius Logan buried the eventual game-winning bucket with 22 seconds left to lift Wingate to the win.
 
The Railsplitters and Bulldogs are set to meet in the SAC tournament for the sixth time since 2011. Lincoln Memorial has won three of the five previous postseason clashes against Wingate, including the most recent one in the 2016 SAC semifinals, 95-83. The Bulldogs' two SAC tournament wins over the Railsplitters came in the semifinal round in 2012 and the championship game in 2013. Lincoln Memorial beat Wingate on its path to winning all three of its SAC tournament titles in 2011, 2014 and 2016.
 
The Railsplitters haven't lost to Wingate since that 69-53 setback in the 2013 SAC title game, stringing together 12 straight wins in the series. The last seven wins over that span have been decided by at least 10 points.
 
Lincoln Memorial swept the regular-season series from the Bulldogs with relative ease, winning 88-65 at Tex Turner Arena on December 13 before crushing Wingate 93-65 on the road back on February 10. In those two contests, the Railsplitters effectively ended it in the first half. They led 42-23 at halftime in the home matchup and 49-29 at the half on the road.
 
The Railsplitters are led into Saturday's matchup by All-SAC first team selections Emanuel Terry, Dorian Pinson and Trevon Shaw as well as All-SAC second team pick Cornelius Taylor. Terry was also tabbed as the SAC Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, while head coach Josh Schertz earned his league record sixth SAC Coach of the Year award, it was announced by the league office on Thursday.
 
Wingate had four players honored with All-SAC awards as well as senior guard Zeriq Lolar, graduate student Kerigan Farley and junior guard Marco Haskins were named to the All-SAC honorable mention squad, while Quantra Taylor was pegged with All-Freshman considerations.
 
However, Lolar, Wingate's leading scorer at 14.9 points per game, was injured in Wednesday's SAC quarterfinals win over Coker and his status is unknown for Saturday. Farley also hasn't played since the Bulldogs beat Tusculum on February 3, leaving Haskins as the team's most productive offensive player left. Haskins is scoring 14.3 points per game to go along with 6.0 rebounds and 1.8 assists per contest. Behind him, Neico Robinson and Devarious Christian are contributing 9.1 and 7.9 points per game, respectively.
 
Wednesday's win over Anderson all but assured that the Railsplitters will host the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional for the third time in four seasons, and a win on Saturday would make it a virtual certainty. Lincoln Memorial entered the postseason ranked No. 1 in the Southeast Region poll with a combined 6-0 record against teams ranked in the top 10 regionally.
 
The field for the 2018 NCAA Tournament and the regional sites will be announced following Sunday's SAC Championship title game at 10:30 p.m. via a live NCAA.com selection show.
 
Tip-off between Lincoln Memorial and Wingate is set for 5 p.m. on Saturday. Live stats, video and audio links are available at www.lmurailsplitters.com.
 
Quick Hits:
 
- In the first meeting against Wingate, Taylor led LMU with 18 points while Shaw added 17 and Pinson and Terry had 14 points apiece. Farley led the Bulldogs with 15 points in the 23-point loss. In the second go around, Shaw hit eight threes to score 24 points while Terry racked up 22 points and 11 rebounds. Haskins and Kendrick Turner paced the Bulldogs with 14 points apiece.
 
- The Railsplitters have advanced to the SAC Championship title game in each of the last five seasons and six times total since the start of the 2010-11 season. Lincoln Memorial is vying for its fourth SAC tournament title and first since 2016.
 
- Shaw is approaching a couple of milestones. The senior guard needs 78 points to become the 30th player in program history with 1,000 career points. He also needed 16 more three-pointers to match the SAC and program single-season record.  
 
- Ticket information and complete information regarding the SAC Championship are available at the tournament central page here.