ANDERSON, S.C. – Boosted by a career-best 19 points from senior Shermeria Quarles in her final appearance and a tremendously-executed defensive second half, the eighth-seeded Lincoln Memorial University women's basketball team narrowly lost Wednesday night's quarterfinal round of the 2020 South Atlantic Conference Pilot Flying J Tournament to No. 1 seed Anderson in South Carolina.

Holding the SAC's regular season champion to a mere six-point third quarter total, the Lady Railsplitters (10-17, 9-13) led the Trojans for the majority of the final frame until a late Anderson rally thrusted the league's highest-ranked squad into the semifinal round, dramatically ending LMU's season in the process, 59-57.

With the last-second defeat, Lincoln Memorial's streak of four consecutive trips to the conference tournament semifinals has been snapped, closing the year with four straight losses. After coming inches away from knocking off the reigning two-time SAC regular season champions, the Lady Railsplitters were instead bumped into an early offseason with the devastating loss.

LMU closed out their regular season schedule against Anderson just four nights prior to the postseason, dropping a hard-fought 75-62 decision in Harrogate over the weekend. Duplicating their scrappy performance in the first quarter from Saturday, the Lady Railsplitters found themselves down by a trey at 18-15 with 10 minutes gone by.

The Trojans (25-4, 19-3) amassed their largest lead of the night towards the end of the second period at eight points, thanks to a Taylor Hair jumper which preceded another from Alexy Mollenhauer, last season's conference and Southeast Region Player of the Year, with just five ticks on the clock.

It was in the second half that Lincoln Memorial dialed up the defensive pressure, holding Anderson to their lowest point total for a single quarter of the entire season coming out of the halftime break. Slowly chipping away at the deficit, LMU reached their first lead since the opening quarter with 1:07 to go in the third off a Lexi Kiser three-pointer.

Part of a 9-0 run that bled into the final stanza, the Lady Raisplitters secured the first two buckets of the fourth to reach their largest lead of 48-42 with 8:09 to go in the contest. With Quarles providing those field goals down low and the LMU offense gaining momentum, the Trojans answered right back with a 6-0 spurt of their own to even things up at the 6:07 stamp.

Both teams traded baskets until the 3:15 mark, when Kiser drained another three-ball to put the blue and gray ahead 55-51. Anderson's Madison Baggett responded with a monstrous triple on the ensuing possession to quickly trim the lead back down to one.

Forward Sydney Newsome's two free throws down the stretch, which gave LMU a 57-54 cushion, signified the final two points of the night for the Lady Railsplitters. They would go scoreless for the final 2:27, while the Trojans found the bare minimum on offense to secure the lead for good.

A mid-range jumper from Hair would lead to an Anderson steal less than 20 seconds later. With 1:09 remaining, Baggett sank another three-ball to hand the Trojans the 59-57 lead that would ultimately land as the final score.

Following two misses in a row from deep, Lincoln Memorial needed one more stop to stay within a one-possession game. Newsome would give them that stop, rejecting Mollenhauer with six seconds on the clock to give LMU one final chance to either win the game or force an extra period.

Kyndall Caudle would fire off a jumper from the right elbow as time expired, clanking off the rim. This allowed Anderson to escape their own building with the gut-wrenching two-point decision, beating Lincoln Memorial for the sixth consecutive time, while also bringing their own winning streak to that same figure.

In addition to her game-high 19 points, Quarles led the Lady Railsplitters on the glass with six rebounds. Newsome would be the only other LMU player to hit double digits in the scoring column with 13 points, along with five boards.

Thanks to a 9-13 effort from the field, Hair provided the highest point total for the Trojans with 18 points. Mollenhauer wasn't too far off that mark with 15, not to mention 13 rebounds for another double-double, while McKenzie Gadson contributed 10.

Baggett would only hit nine points in the win, although the two three-pointers by the senior in clutch time proved to be the difference. Baggett also snatched seven rebounds in the victory, while dishing out four assists.

The Lady Railsplitters ended their season with a 36% shooting effort from the floor, next to a 35% performance from three-point territory. Despite only 12 attempts at the free throw line, LMU turned in one of their most effective outings of the year at the charity stripe, hitting 10 of those tries for an 83% clip.

Significantly cutting back on their turnover differential with only 13 takeaways, albeit leading to 16 Anderson points in the other direction, Lincoln Memorial managed to outrebound the most imposing team in the SAC by a 40-38 margin, but it wasn't enough to make it to the semifinal matchup in Greenville, South Carolina.
 
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Stay tuned to LMURailsplitters.com, as well as LMU's social media platforms —@LMURailsplitter on Twitter, @LMURailsplitters on Facebook and @lmurailsplitters on Instagram — for more LMU women's basketball coverage as the transition begins into the 2020 offseason.