HARROGATE, Tenn. –Career nights from Kamaran Calhoun and Cameron Henry helped the Railsplitters overcome a sloppy second-half effort to down the Tusculum Pioneers 86-72 in South Atlantic Conference men's hoops action on Wednesday at Tex Turner Arena.
 
Henry carried Lincoln Memorial (13-4, 8-2 SAC) through the first half, scoring 16 of his career-high 22 points to send the Railsplitters into the break with a 44-27 cushion. Tusculum (9-9, 5-5 SAC) surged in the second half, but Calhoun accounted for 20 of his career-best and game-high 27 points to stave off the Pioneer rally. 
 
The win pushes the Railsplitters to 9-0 at Tex Turner Arena this season and 31-0 in their last 31 regular-season home games. Lincoln Memorial also defeated Tusculum for the 24th consecutive time while snapping the Pioneers' five-game winning streak in the 177th all-time meeting.  
 
Aside from Calhoun and Henry's 49 combined points, Julius Brown was the only other Railsplitter in double figures, scoring 11 in 25 minutes off the bench. Courvoisier McCauley added nine points, while Anthony Brown had four points with a team-high 11 rebounds and five assists. Rhondi Hackett (9) and Alex Dahling (6) were the only other players to score for Lincoln Memorial. 
 
The first 27 minutes featured some of Lincoln Memorial's best basketball of the season. 
 
Tusculum used a pair of triples to take a brief two-point lead at 119, but the Railsplitters followed that up with a 14-3 run capped by back-to-back three-pointers from Henry to take a 23-14 lead with 11:23 left in the first half. 
 
Two more threes from McCauley and Julius Brown kept the Railsplitters' hot shooting going and extended the lead to 29-16 less than two minutes after that.  
 
After Tusculum briefly closed the gap to 10 points, Henry buried Lincoln Memorial's ninth three-pointer of the half to kick start a 7-0 closing run that sent the Railsplitters into the locker room with a 17-point advantage. 
 
The Railsplitters kept piling it on early in the second half, opening with a 12-2 run to take their largest lead of the game at 56-29 with 16:42 left in regulation. 
 
Things took a turn for the worse over the final 13 minutes, though. 
 
Due to a bevy of turnovers and a more than seven-minute stretch without a field goal, Lincoln Memorial watched as Tusculum trimmed the lead down to 63-48 by the 9:47 mark. 
 
But Calhoun helped the Railsplitters survive that stretch of poor shooting, dropping in a bucket followed by a pair of free throws to start a 10-2 flurry that pushed the lead back to 73-50 with 6:22 to play. 
 
Tusculum made several more runs and cut the lead to as little as 13 on four separate occasions down the stretch, but never got any closer than that. 
 
The Railsplitters shot 57 percent, including a 9-for-15 mark from three, in the first half. Over that same span, Lincoln Memorial also had just four turnovers with 11 assists. The second half was a different story, though, as the Railsplitters turned it over 15 times and had just six assists while shooting 45 percent from the field, marred by a 2-for-9 clip from three. 
 
Tariq Jenkins led the Pioneers with 24 points on 8-for-19 shooting. Trenton Gibson added 19 points on 7-for-17 shooting, as Tusculum posted a 33 percent clip in the game, stunted by a dismal 7-for-35 effort from three. Adrian Cohen scored eight points in 15 minutes off the bench. 
 
Tip-Ins 
 
- Calhoun has now scored 20-plus points in three straight games after going the first 61 games of his career without reaching the 20-point plateau. The redshirt-junior went 7-for-10 from the floor and 13-for-16 at the charity stripe while adding eight rebounds. 
 
- Tusculum scored 27 points off the Railsplitters' 19 turnovers. Of those 27, 22 came in the second half. 
 
- The Railsplitters hit seven of their first nine three-point tries. Four different players accounted for at least one make, led by Henry's career-high five. 
 
- Lincoln Memorial shortened its bench substantially with only seven players making an appearance. The Railsplitters' second unit scored 20 points compared to 38 for the Tusculum bench. 
 
Up Next 
 
The Railsplitters make their longest trip in the South Atlantic Conference on Saturday when they visit the Coker Cobras for a 4 p.m. tip-off.