HARROGATE, Tenn. – Following fall final exam week and the first week of the winter/Christmas break for students, the Lincoln Memorial University men's and women's basketball teams are in full swing as the only two athletic programs competing. Both squads will host Lenoir-Rhyne in a South Atlantic Conference doubleheader presented by Papa John's Pizza Wednesday night, before hitting the road for non-conference affairs over the weekend.
 
Throughout 2019-20, LMU athletics will provide a look ahead at the week's calendar of athletic events, both home and away, previewing each team's competition/s and highlighting program's news, notes, performances and more.
 
Women's Basketball
After an 11-day absence with some time off for finals, the LMU women's basketball team will play their final two games of December this week when it hosts Lenoir-Rhyne in a SAC contest Wednesday evening at 5:30 p.m. before travelling to face future conference foe Limestone Saturday afternoon. The Lady Railsplitters enter the week with a 4-3 overall record and a 3-1 mark in league play, tying them for third in the conference standings.
 
Freshman guard Lauren Flowers leads the team in scoring with 12 points a game, while senior forward Shermeria Quarles is chipping in 8.7 points to go along with her team-high 7.3 rebounds a game. Junior forward Semajia Ogburn is second on the team in rebounds with an average of 7.2 boards a game. Flowers also leads the team in assists (22) and ranks 12th in the SAC in that category as senior guard Kyndall Caudle's 58.3 shooting percentage from behind the three-point arc leads the league.
 
Wednesday's game will be the 27th all-time meeting between LMU and the Bears with Lenoir-Rhyne holding a 16-10 edge. However, the Lady Railsplitters have won six of the past eight meetings. The Bears enter the game with a 2-7 overall record and are 0-4 in SAC play with losses to Tusculum, Queens, Wingate and Anderson. The team lost a lot to graduation but sophomore Madeline Hardy, who was the top scoring freshman in the SAC last season, currently leads Lenoir-Rhyne in both scoring (16.9 PPG) and rebounding (8.2 RPG). Kennedy Weigt is second on the team in scoring and leads the team in assists.
 
On Saturday, LMU travels to Gaffney, South Carolina, to face Limestone in a 2 p.m. tip-off for the first time in program history. Limestone will be joining the SAC for the 2020-21 season. The two teams were scheduled to meet in a tournament in Mars Hill, North Carolina, on Nov. 23, 1985, but the game was forfeited due to technical issues at the host venue. The Saints are currently 7-3 on the season and 3-3 in Conference Carolinas play. The teams have two common opponents to this point, defeating Queens 67-63 and falling to Belmont Abbey 82-78 in overtime. Limestone is led by Schekinah Bimpa's 15.6 points and 10.5 rebounds a game. Reagan McCray is second on the team with 12.9 points a game, while Quin Byrd is scoring 11.3 points a contest and leads the squad in assists. Three other Saints are averaging double-figure scoring in Lynadia Whiting (11.7 PPG), Alexis Armstrong (10.7 PPG) and Jayla Morrow (10.5 PPG).
 
Men's Basketball
The Railsplitters (10-1, 4-0 SAC) won their 10th consecutive game Sunday afternoon in dominant fashion, claiming LMU's largest margin of victory since December of 2017 with a 60-point, 122-62 rout of visiting NAIA member Tennessee Wesleyan. The 122 points scored were the most since scoring 156 in an 87-point blowout of Mars Hill on Dec. 11, 2017.  
 
Knocking down a season-high 19 three pointers, the Railsplitters showed no signs of rust following an eight-day break from game action due to final exams. LMU assisted on 33 of 45 made field goals, which tied for the fourth-most assists in a single game in program history and scored 65 second-half points on 60.5 percent (23-of-38) shooting. Six different players reached double figures in the Sunday afternoon tilt led by redshirt junior guard Devin Whitfield's 26 points on 9-for-15 shooting and season-high six three pointers on only 11 attempts. Junior guard Alex Dahling also surpassed 20 points, scoring a season-best 23 on 6-for-13 shooting from outside.
 
Now owning seven 30-plus point wins on the season, including two by 50 or more, the Railsplitters are outscoring their opponents by an astonishing 28.4 points per game for the second-highest margin of victory among all of NCAA Division II basketball.
 
LMU will conclude a three-game homestand Wednesday night by stepping back into SAC play when it hosts Lenoir-Rhyne inside Tex Turner Arena for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off. On Sunday, the Railsplitters hit the road and travel to Owensboro, Kentucky, to face Kentucky Wesleyan in a 3 p.m. non-conference matchup inside the Owensboro Sportscenter.
 
The Bears visit Harrogate winless in league play after three-straight SAC road losses at Tusculum (70-58), nationally-ranked Queens (82-68) and Anderson (87-79). Prior to conference play, Lenoir-Rhyne held a 4-1 record with wins over Emmanuel College, Young Harris, Southern Wesleyan and Clayton State. Wednesday night's game will be the 31st all-time meeting between LMU and the Bears of Lenoir-Rhyne with the Railsplitters owning a 21-9 advantage in the series. Prior to an 85-83 loss in Hickory, North Carolina, this past March, LMU had won 18-straight versus the Bears from 2011-19. The Railsplitters are 12-3 against Lenoir-Rhyne in Harrogate and have not dropped a home game to the Bears since Feb. 13, 2010.
 
Sunday's matinee tilt at Kentucky Wesleyan will be the ninth all-time meeting between the two teams with the Panthers holding a 6-2 lead in the series. LMU and Kentucky Wesleyan have met just twice this century after the Panthers won the first six meetings between 1967-99. In November of 2016 the Railsplitters claimed an 88-72 neutral-site win over Kentucky Wesleyan in the first annual Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic in Evansville, Kentucky, before defeating the Panthers 87-67 last December in Harrogate. Having gone 0-5 in its previous trips, LMU is seeking its first win over Kentucky Wesleyan in Owensboro.
 
How to Follow
Stay tuned to LMURailsplitters.com, as well as LMU's social media platforms - @LMURailsplitter on Twitter, @LMURailsplitters on Facebook and @lmurailsplitters on Instagram, for complete coverage of Railsplitter and Lady Railsplitter athletics throughout 2019-20.