HARROGATE, Tenn. – Returning to South Atlantic Conference action, the Lincoln Memorial University men's basketball team hosts its first midweek league game of 2019-20 with Lenoir-Rhyne visiting the friendly confines of B. Frank "Tex" Turner Arena Wednesday night for a 7:30 p.m. tip-off. Presented by Papa John's Pizza, the Railsplitters (10-1, 4-0 SAC) wrap up a three-game homestand looking to remain perfect in SAC play and stay unbeaten at home this season.
 
On a 10-game winning streak, its longest since earning 21 consecutive victories in 2017-18, LMU will go for its 11th straight Wednesday night when the Bears (4-4, 0-3 SAC) come to town.
 
How to Follow
Wednesday night's conference affair will be streamed live via SAC Live on Stretch Internet, while live statistics of the game can be followed by visiting LMURailsplitters.com, As usual, in-game updates will be available on LMU Railsplitter athletics' official Twitter account, @LMURailsplitter.
 
Opening Tip
- After earning another blowout win Sunday afternoon, a 60-point, 122-62 rout of visiting Tennessee Wesleyan, the Railsplitters are defeating opponents by an average of 28.4 points which is the second-highest scoring margin in the nation.
- In its last outing against the NAIA member Bulldogs, LMU lit it up from outside with a season-high 19 three pointers on 41 attempts (46.3%) and assisted on a season-best 33 of the Railsplitters' 45 made field goals. LMU's 33 assists tied for the fourth-most in a single game in program history, while the 122 points scored were the most since December of 2017.
- For the first time since the end of the 2017-18 season, the Railsplitters are ranked in the top five in the nation after climbing three spots to No. 4 in this week's National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II Top 25 poll released Tuesday afternoon. It marks the 42nd week LMU has been ranked among the top five nationally and first since completing the 2017-18 season as the top team in the country.
- The Railsplitters also moved up a trio of spots to No. 6 in Tuesday's new D2SIDA Media Poll after checking in at No. 9 in the national media poll last week.
- Wednesday will mark the 31st all-time meeting between LMU and Lenoir-Rhyne with the Railsplitters owning a 21-9 lead in the series. The game will be the 16th matchup between the two teams inside Tex Turner Arena with LMU owning a 12-3 record against the Bears in Harrogate. The Railsplitters have not dropped a home game to Lenoir-Rhyne since Feb. 13, 2010.
- Prior to an 85-83 loss in Hickory, North Carolina, this past March, LMU had won 18-straight versus the Bears from 2011-19.
- Lenoir-Rhyne enters Wednesday night's tilt winless in league play after suffering three-straight SAC road losses at Tusculum (70-58), nationally-ranked Queens (82-68) and Anderson (87-79).
 
Impressive in 10th-Straight Win
Showing no signs of rust following an eight-day break from game action due to fall final exam week, the Railsplitters put on a basketball clinic this past Sunday in Harrogate as they scored 65 second-half points on 60.5 percent (23-of-38) shooting against Tennessee Wesleyan. LMU committed a season-low six turnovers while scoring 52 points in the paint and tallying 31 points off of 21 Bulldog miscues. For the second consecutive outing, the Railsplitters went 13-for-15 (86.7%) at the free-throw line as six different players reached double figures in scoring. Led by junior guard Devin Whitfield's 26 points on 9-for-15 shooting and season-high six three pointers on only 11 attempts, LMU got a season-best 23 points from junior guard Alex Dahling who went 6-for-13 from outside. Senior point guard Anthony Brown notched his sixth career double-double and first of the season with 15 points and 10 assists, his first double-digit assist game of his career.
 
Distancing Itself from the Competition
Seven of the Railsplitters' 10 victories thus far this season have come in dominant fashion. Owning an astounding seven wins by at least 31 points, including Sunday's 60-point triumph which was the largest margin of victory since a 156-69 blowout of Mars Hill two years ago, LMU has outscored its competition by 312 points through just 11 games. The Railsplitters have now notched wins of 60, 50, 47, 40, 37, 32 and 31 points. During its 10-game win streak, LMU has defeated its opponents by an impressive average of 32.2 points.
 
A National Statistical Leader
In addition to the Railsplitters' scoring margin ranking among national bests, LMU sits among the elite teams in the country in several offensive and defensive statistical categories. The Railsplitters lead all of Division II basketball in field-goal percentage defense (35.7%) and are ranked third in the nation in both defensive rebounding (33.09 RPG) and total assists (224). At the foul line LMU's 81.2 free-throw percentage is sixth-best nationally, while the Railsplitters rank seventh in the country in assists per game (20.4), eighth in both field-goal percentage (51.8%) and three-point field goal defense (26.8%), ninth in three pointers made (125), 14th in three pointers attempted (317), 17th in total rebounds (455), 19th in both three pointers made per game (11.4) and total steals (103), 22nd in assist/turnover ratio (1.47), 24th in made free throws (181) and 25th in steals per contest (9.4).
 
Southeast Region Supremacy
Prior to fall final exams on Saturday, Dec. 7 LMU ended a three-game slide versus Queens University of Charlotte with a gritty 73-64 victory. The Railsplitters got a game-high 26 points on 10-for-15 shooting from sophomore guard Courvoisier McCauley and led by as many as 20 points in the first half of the top-25 matchup that featured the top two teams in the league and Division II Southeast Region. After the then 12th-ranked Royals got within seven in the second half, LMU went on a game-clinching 14-7 run over a 4:14 span late and hit three of four free throws in the final minute of play along with getting a layup from redshirt senior guard/forward Kamaran Calhoun. Using a dominant first half, the Railsplitters led 39-21 at the break and shot 51 percent (25-of-49) across the 40 minutes of action. The win was LMU's fifth against a team either ranked or receiving votes in at least one of the two national polls this season.
 
Voss is the Boss
There has been no sophomore slump for Courvoisier "Voss" McCauley, who is leading the team in scoring (20.1 PPG) and has posted at least 13 points in each of the Railsplitters' 11 games this season, including a career-high 36 in the 83-72 home win over USC Aiken. The 6-foot-5 wingman is shooting 42.7 percent (38-of-89) from outside, in addition to averaging 5.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.5 steals per game. McCauley ranks eighth in the nation in three pointers made (38), 14th in three-point attempts (89), 27th in three pointers per game (3.5), 30th in points scored (221) and 35th in field goal attempts (160).
 
Whitfield Reaches 1,000
It took redshirt junior Whitfield just five games to get acclimated into head coach Josh Schertz' offensive system after transferring to Harrogate from fellow Division II member Trevecca Nazarene in Nashville and sitting out the 2018-19 season. The 6-foot-5 guard has reached double-figure scoring in six of his last seven outings and scored a season-high 31 points in LMU's 37-point road rout of Wingate. He has scored 20 points or more in five of the last seven games and is eighth nationally and second in the SAC in free-throw percentage (93.9%) of those who meet NCAA minimums. After scoring a remarkable 907 points in two seasons at Trevecca Nazarene, Whitfield scored his 1,000th career point at Wingate on Nov. 23. He has amassed an astonishing 1,090 points in only 62 collegiate games played.
 
National Prominence
The Railsplitters continue to move up in the national rankings, rising three spots in both national polls this week to No. 4 in the NABC Top 25 Division II poll and No. 6 in the D2SIDA Media Poll. Queens is the only other conference team to appear in the national rankings, checking in at No. 20 in the coaches poll and 21st in the media poll. A pair of teams who were ranked in the top five last week lost to shuffle up the nation's top 10 quite a bit. Both previously top-ranked Nova Southeastern and third-ranked West Texas A&M, who LMU saw in its season opener at the fourth annual Small College Basketball Hall of Fame Classic in Saint Joseph, Missouri, endured their first defeats of the season to fall to fifth and seventh, respectively, in the NABC Top 25.
 
Southeast Region Leaders
For the fourth-straight week, the Railsplitters gained all possible first-place votes in the D2SIDA Southeast Region Poll released Monday morning. LMU continues to lead Belmont Abbey (8-2) and Queens (7-2, 2-1), who sit in second and third place in the regional poll, followed by Catawba (7-2, 3-1) fourth.
 
Railsplitters at Home
Inside Tex Turner Arena, the Railsplitters have registered a .928 (141-11) winning percentage this decade. Entering the 2019-20 season, LMU ranked sixth nationally at home in all of college basketball since 2010-11 with a .925 (135-11) winning percentage. Only West Liberty (.953), Bellarmine (.949), Kansas (.947), Kentucky (.942) and Duke (.929) owned a higher home court winning percentage than the Railsplitters during that span. Since coach Schertz took over the reins of the program prior to the 2008-09 campaign, LMU has gone 163-16 (.911) in home affairs.
 
Standard of Success
The Railsplitters have finished within the top two of the final SAC standings each of the last nine years, spent 95-straight weeks in the national rankings from December 2010 to December 2016 and completed the season as the top team in the country in two of the last four seasons. LMU is one of four Division II programs to have posted 20 wins or more for 10 consecutive years. Only West Liberty (15), Bellarmine (11) and Indiana Pa. (11) can say the same. The Railsplitters have also reached the NCAA Tournament eight of the last nine seasons.
 
Coach Schertz Among the Elite
Since taking over the LMU men's basketball program in March of 2008, head coach Josh Schertz has amassed a remarkable 296-65 (.820) record over 12 seasons. Entering the 2019-20 season, Schertz' career winning percentage (.817) was the fifth-highest of any head coach in college basketball history at any NCAA level. Furthermore, Schertz ranks third among active head coaches with at least 10 years at the helm - Jim Crutchfield, Nova Southeastern (.844) and Mark Few, Gonzaga (.825) - and owns the second-highest winning percentage among Division II leaders.
 
Lenoir-Rhyne | 2019-20 Record: 4-4, 0-3 SAC

• The Bears tied for sixth in the SAC's preseason predicted order of finish, however, received one first-place vote from the league's head coaches after reaching last year's conference tournament title game. Fifth-seeded Lenoir-Rhyne was edged 71-67 by second-seeded Catawba in the 2019 SAC Tournament championship after upsetting top-seeded Queens 83-68 in the semifinals.
• Lenoir-Rhyne is a NCAA Tournament team from a year ago after the Bears finished fifth in the final conference standings with a 12-8 SAC mark. Falling 84-71 in the first round of the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional, Lenoir-Rhyne's season came to a close with a 21-11 overall record.
• LMU earned a 79-68 win over the Bears in Harrogate this past January before dropping a tightly-contested two-point decision in North Carolina.
• Led by fourth-year head coach Everick Sullivan, who has increased the program's win total each of his first three seasons, Lenoir-Rhyne lost a pair of all-conference performers due to exhausted eligibility in Djibril Diallo and Cory Thomas. However, the Bears feature talented 6-foot-7 junior guard/forward R.J. Gunn, who is third in the league in scoring (20.9 PPG) and averages a team-best 6.3 rebounds. Lenoir-Rhyne also has the services of redshirt junior guard Darius Simmons, who is averaging 16.5 points per game, and junior guard Mason Hawks, who leads the team in assists (3.9 APG) and is also providing double-digit scoring (11.5 PPG).

 
Looking Ahead
The Railsplitters will hit the road for one final game before Christmas break when they travel to Owensboro, Kentucky, to face Kentucky Wesleyan Sunday afternoon in a 3 p.m. EST tip-off. Following Sunday's non-conference road tilt, LMU will have 13 days off from game action before returning to conference play Saturday, Jan. 4 at Newberry.
 
LMU L-Club
All LMU L-Club members receive basketball season tickets with premium seating available through silver and platinum memberships. Additional membership benefits include discounts at community partner locations, exclusive e-mail communications, VIP basketball parking and Tex Turner Arena hospitality room access. Become an LMU L-Club member today by visiting LMURailsplitters.com.  
 
On Social
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 basketball throughout the 2019-20 season.