HARROGATE, Tenn. – The Railsplitters return to the friendly confines of Tex Turner Arena on Saturday evening to host the red-hot Lenoir-Rhyne Bears for a South Atlantic Conference showdown.
 
Tip-off between Lincoln Memorial (11-4, 6-2 SAC) and Lenoir-Rhyne (13-3, 6-2 SAC) is set for 4 p.m. Live stats and video links are available at www.lmurailsplitters.com, while fans can also follow along with in-game updates via the official LMU athletics Twitter page, @LMURailsplitter. 
 
Notes on Lenoir-Rhyne 
 
- The Bears pushed their winning streak to five games on Wednesday with a 75-64 victory at Coker. Cory Thomas led the way with 20 points on 9-for-12 shooting, while Djibril Diallo added 17 points, seven assists and six rebounds. As a team, Lenoir-Rhyne shot a sizzling 59 percent from the field. 
- L-R has already surpassed its win total from the entire 2017-18 campaign, when they posted an 11-16 record and tied for fifth in the SAC with a 9-11 conference mark.
- Diallo and Thomas have led the Bears offensively all season. Diallo has accounted for 16.3 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game while shooting 49 percent from the field. Thomas, meanwhile, has added 16.2 points, 6.0 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.1 steals per game, and shot 51 percent to boot.  
- Four other players are providing over six points per game for the Bears: R.J. Gunn (11.6 ppg, 3.4 rpg), Jon Jean (8.9 ppg, 4.9 apg), Mason Hawks (6.6 ppg) and Bertrand Awana (6.0 ppg, 6.3 rpg). 
- Lenoir-Rhyne is one of the top offensive teams in the SAC, scoring 82.1 points per game while shooting 48.5 percent from the field and 38 percent from three. The Bears are also second in the league in assists per game with 17.4. 
- Defensively, L-R is second in the SAC in points allowed per game with 73.8. However, opponents are shooting 44 percent against the Bears, which is the fourth-worst field-goal percentage defense in the league. 
- The Bears have won three consecutive road games, including an 80-77 triumph at Belmont Abbey, who is among the top teams in the region with a 15-3 overall record. L-R is 6-1 in true road games this season with its only loss coming at Anderson, 74-69. 
- Lenoir-Rhyne is just four seasons removed from a trip to the Sweet 16, as the Bears faced Lincoln Memorial in the 2016 Southeast Regional title game. The Railsplitters won that game 103-80 to book their first-ever trip to the national quarterfinals. 
- The Bears have had decent leads in all three of their losses this season. In a 76-69 setback to nationally-ranked Queens, L-R led by as many as seven late in the first half. They also had a nine-point, second-half lead in their 75-74 buzzer-beating loss to Clayton State. 
- Everick Sullivan is in his second season leading the L-R men's basketball program. Prior to his arrival in Hickory, N.C., Sullivan helped Georgia State rack up 87 wins over a four-year period as an assistant coach. 
 
Last Time Out 
 
With leading scorer Cornelius Taylor sidelined by injury, Kamaran Calhoun, Rhondi Hackett and Courvoisier McCauley stepped up to lead the Railsplitters to a hard-fought 85-78 win at Mars Hill on Wednesday night. 
 
Calhoun accounted for a career-high 22 points and 10 rebounds, Hackett had a career-high 15 points on 7-for-9 shooting, and McCauley added 14 points in 18 minutes off the bench. Alex Dahling also pitched in 13 points with four three-pointers.  
 
The Railsplitters used a 24-2 run early in the first half to build a commanding 19-point cushion, but the Lions fought back to cut the halftime deficit to 40-30. Mars Hill kept it going early in the second half and tied the game at 46-46 and 49-49, but Lincoln Memorial hit enough timely shots to ultimately prevail. 
 
Lincoln Memorial posted its second-highest field-goal percentage of the season with a 54.7 percent clip to beat Mars Hill for the 19th straight time dating back to February 2010. 
 
Tip-Ins
 
- The Railsplitters are 7-0 at home this season. Lincoln Memorial has not lost a regular-season home game since suffering a 107-102 loss to Newberry on December 17, 2016, reeling off 29 consecutive regular-season win at Tex Turner Arena since then.  
- Lincoln Memorial is averaging an obscene 98.4 points per game at Turner Arena this season. The team has shot 51 percent and gone 106-for-242 from three-point territory for a 44 percent mark. 
- Calhoun is ranked second in the South Atlantic Conference in field-goal percent with a 64.2 percent mark. The junior has also scored double figures in three straight games and hit his first three-pointer of the season in Wednesday's win at Mars Hill. 
- There's a four-way logjam for second place in the SAC standings. Queens is currently atop the league at 8-0, while Lincoln Memorial, Lenoir-Rhyne, Catawba and Wingate are all tied for second at 6-2. 
- The Railsplitters are second in the SAC in free-throw percentage at 73.9 percent. Anthony Brown, Julius Brown and Taylor are all shooting over 80 percent at the charity stripe. 
- LMU leads the SAC in field-goal percentage defense, holding opponents to 39.8 percent shooting. However, the Railsplitters have conceded a 35.4 percent mark from three – the second-worst three-point defense in the league. 
 
Series History 
 
- The Railsplitters are 20-8 all-time against Lenoir-Rhyne with a streak of 17 straight wins in the series dating back to January 2011. 
- That includes an 11-3 record in Harrogate. LMU has won 10 of the last 11 matchups against the Bears at Tex Turner. 
- Lincoln Memorial swept the regular-season series in 2017-18 in dominant fashion, winning 72-55 in Hickory and 103-59 in Harrogate. 
- L-R last beat the Railsplitters 88-75 in double overtime on February 14, 2009.