NEWBERRY, S.C. – Beginning a four-game road trip to wrap up the regular season, the Lincoln Memorial University men's basketball team takes on Newberry College Saturday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. in South Carolina. Seeking their sixth road victory of the season, the fourth-ranked Railsplitters will be going for their 10th-straight win when they tip off against the host Wolves inside Eleazer Arena.  
 
Leading the 13-team South Atlantic Conference with a 14-1 league record and 16-1 overall mark, LMU is one of just two NCAA Division II teams who have won 16 games already in 2020-21. Newberry, who has been affected by recent COVID-19 circumstances, has played just eight games this season and enters the weekend 5-3 in conference play.
 
How to Follow
Saturday afternoon's road test will be streamed live via NewberryWolves.com and live statistics of the SAC matchup can also be followed at NewberryWolves.com. As usual, in-game updates will be available on LMU Railsplitter athletics' official Twitter account, @LMURailsplitter.
 
Railsplitters on the Road
Since head coach Josh Schertz has been at the helm, the Railsplitters have gone 119-36 (.768) in true road games and completed three undefeated seasons at opposing team's venues. Last year, LMU was a perfect 12-0 in true road games after owning that same record on the road in 2017-18 and 2014-15. In the last 713 days, the Railsplitters have suffered just one true road defeat.
 
Hosting Again
On Friday morning the NCAA Division II Championships Committee announced predetermined regional sites for the 2021 NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Basketball Championships and for the fifth time in seven years B. Frank "Tex" Turner Arena has been selected to host the NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Southeast Regional Championship. Due to the health and safety protocols surrounding the COVID-19 global pandemic, it was deemed necessary to conduct all NCAA championship competition at predetermined sites.
 
A Top-10 Staple
LMU is ranked among the nation's top five in both national polls. In the ninth National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II Top 25 regular season poll of 2020-21 announced this past Tuesday, the Railsplitters are No. 4 for the third consecutive week. LMU received a first-place vote and is second in the fifth D2SIDA Media Poll of 2021, which was also released last Tuesday. Receiving five first-place votes, the Railsplitters sit atop the fifth regular season D2SIDA Southeast Region Poll released this past Monday. Due to the difficulties of the COVID-19 global pandemic, many teams have played a very limited number of games this season. Several teams were removed from the NABC Top 25 following the announcement that they would no longer be eligible for the 2021 NCAA Division II Basketball Championship due to delayed season starts. LMU has spent a program record 25-straight weeks ranked in the top 10 dating back to Nov. 19, 2019, and has held a top-five ranking a combined 61 weeks. The Railsplitters have been a top-10 team for 95 total weeks and have appeared in the national polls a total of 144 weeks since December of 2010.
 
Among National Leaders
Continually striving to be elite on both ends of the floor, LMU leads the nation or is near the top in several offensive and defensive statistical categories including ranking:

• First in total assists (404)
• First in assists per game (23.8)
• First in total three-point field goals made (214)
• First in three-point field goal attempts (514)
• First in total rebounds (714)
• First in scoring margin (26.4)
• First in defensive rebounds per game (33.29)
• Second in three-point field goals per-game (12.6)
• Second in rebound margin (10.7)
• Third in assist-turnover ratio (1.7)
• Third in field-goal percentage (53.5 percent)
• Sixth in scoring offense (95.6)
• Sixth in field-goal percentage defense (38.7)
• Seventh in total steals (127)
• 11th in free throws made (241)
• 13th in total rebounds per game (42)

Sweeping Catawba
In potentially their final home game of the regular season this past Monday night inside Tex Turner Arena, the Railsplitters took care of Catawba College, 106-72, for a regular season sweep of the Indians. Reaching the century mark of the ninth time of 2020-21, LMU turned in another splendid offensive performance by shooting 63.8 percent from the field and assisting on 32 of its 37 made baskets. Scoring 48 points in the paint and getting 39 points off their bench, the Railsplitters turned 14 Catawba turnovers into 24 points and collected 28 of their 106 points off the fastbreak. Owning a slight, four-rebound advantage on the glass (39-35), LMU held the Indians to just 30.8 percent second-half shooting and limited Catawba to 33.8 percent from the floor for the night. Behind four double-figure scorers and two double-double performers, the Railsplitters scored at least 50 points in each half and shot 64.5 percent across the opening 20 minutes, including going 8-for-15 from beyond the arc. After four lead changes in the first 12 minutes, LMU led from the 6:40 mark of the first half forward. Junior forward Jordan Guest recorded his third career double-double with a team-high 20 points and 10 rebounds, while redshirt sophomore guard/forward Xavier Bledson notched his third double-double with a career-high 11 assists and 11 points to go along with five boards in only 21 minutes of action off the bench. Junior point guard Julius Brown finished with 16 points and four assists and senior guard Alex Dahling added 13 points and five rebounds. An acrobatic and-one layup from Guest as he was falling to the ground behind the goal early in the second half earned him a spot on ESPN SportsCenter Top 10 as his play appeared at No. 3 for the night.

All LMU Does is Win
Coming off their best season in terms of winning percentage (.970), the Railsplitters have won 48 of their last 49 games. LMU's 39-straight victories from Nov. 2, 2019 – Jan. 6, 2021 set both a program and SAC record for consecutive wins. Having won 36 of their last 37 conference outings, the Railsplitters went an unblemished 22-0 in SAC play in 2019-20 for their third undefeated league season in the last five years. Finishing 32-1 overall last year, LMU has dropped just two games in the last 709 days.
 
A Nice Response
Following their first defeat in 435 days at Lenoir-Rhyne (Jan. 9), the Railsplitters have responded by putting up some stunning numbers. With an average margin of victory of 29 over its last nine wins, LMU has outscored its opponents by 261 points. Scoring 98.1 points per game, the Railsplitters have shot 52.9 percent from the field and 42 percent from deep with 13.7 made threes and 25.4 assists per contest. Owning the glass, LMU has averaged 45 rebounds per game and outrebounded its last nine opponents by a 12.7 margin. The Railsplitters have assisted on 229 of their 321 made field goals (71.3 percent) during the nine-game stretch.
 
1K Scorers
Redshirt senior guard Devin Whitfield reached 1,000 career points a season ago and needs just 129 more points to get to 2,000, while redshirt junior guard Henry is only 22 points away from becoming the program's 31st 1,000-point scorer. With 907 of his 1,871 career points coming during his two seasons at fellow Division II Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Whitfield is just 36 points shy of becoming LMU's 32nd (or 31st) 1,000-point scorer. Dahling (729) and Julius Brown (623) are also within reach of the coveted 1,000-point mark for their Railsplitter careers.
 
Versus the Wolves
Saturday afternoon is the 33rd all-time meeting between LMU and Newberry with the Railsplitters dominating the series, 25-7. Having gone 21-2 against the Wolves since the start of 2011, LMU is 11-3 at Newberry. The Railsplitters began their 2020-21 campaign with an 80-62 win over the Wolves in Harrogate on Nov. 21 and defeated Newberry by an average of 33.5 in two meetings last season. LMU has not faltered against the Wolves since Dec. 17, 2016, and has not suffered a setback in Newberry, South Carolina, since Feb. 27, 2010. Coach Schertz is 22-5 versus Newberry.
 
About LMU Basketball
The second-winningest Division II program of the 2010's (.845), the Railsplitters have won 13 total SAC titles since 2011. Selected as the top seed and host of the Division II Men's Basketball Southeast Regional Championship four of the last six years, LMU has ended the season ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 three times in the last five seasons. The only school in Division II to have reached 30 wins in five of the last six years, the Railsplitters are one of only four Division II programs to have recorded 20 wins or more for 11-straight seasons. LMU has notched at least 25 wins and earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament nine of the last 10 seasons. Inside Tex Turner Arena the Railsplitters have registered the second-highest home court winning percentage in Division II basketball since 2010-11, going an impressive 163-11 (.937). The 163 home victories are the most among Division II programs in the last 11 years as LMU has posted three perfect seasons in Harrogate during that time.
 
About Coach Schertz
Since taking over the Railsplitter basketball program, coach Schertz has amassed an astonishing 334-66 record over 13 seasons. Schertz' career winning percentage of .835 is the second-highest of any head coach in men's college basketball history at any NCAA level (minimum 10 seasons). He is in second place just ahead of Gonzaga head coach Mark Few (.833) among active head coaches with at least 10 years at the helm – Jim Crutchfield, Nova Southeastern (.841). On Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020, coach Schertz reached his 300th career victory with a 76-64 conference home win over UVA Wise. Reaching the 300-win milestone in only 365 games as a head coach, the seven-time SAC Coach of the Year owns the second-most SAC victories with a phenomenal 214-37 (.853) league record.
 
About Newberry
Led second-year head coach Jason Taylor, the Wolves returned from a 19-day hiatus due to COVID-19 circumstances this past Thursday where they were narrowly edged 70-69 by visiting Anderson University. Prior to its pause, Newberry had won three straight with home victories over Tusculum University (73-66) on Jan. 13 and Limestone (85-78) on Jan. 20 and a road triumph at The University of Virginia's College at Wise (73-70) on Jan. 23. The Wolves also own road wins at Carson-Newman (70-67) on Dec. 2 and at Wingate (83-75) on Jan. 5. A 91-84 loss at Division I Western Carolina University out of the Southern Conference and a 70-62 home defeat to Wingate (70-62) on Jan. 6 are Newberry's only other setbacks this season. Picked to finish eighth in the SAC's preseason poll, the Wolves went 10-12 in the league and posted a 14-15 overall mark in 2019-20. Newberry finished in a three-way tie for sixth place in last year's final conference standings before earning the No. 6 seed for the 2020 SAC Tournament where the Wolves fell 89-87 to third-seeded Catawba in the opening round. Returning just two starters from last season, Newberry features a trio of double-figure scorers. Junior 6-foot-6 forward QuanDaveon McCollum is nearly averaging a double-double and leads the team in both scoring (18.3 PPG) and rebounding (9.9 RPG). Junior 6-foot-4 guard TJ Brown (17.8 PPG) and senior 5-foot-10 guard Marcus Ford (15.3 PPG) are also both averaging double-figure scoring, although Ford has not suited up for the Wolves since Jan. 20. Sophomore 6-foot-1 guard Robin Bedford leads Newberry in assists (3.1 APG).
 
Looking Ahead
LMU continues its four-game road trip Wednesday, Feb. 17 when the Railsplitters head to nearby Greeneville, Tennessee, to take on the Pioneers of Tusculum in an 8 p.m. affair. Next Saturday, Feb. 20 LMU travels to Charlotte, North Carolina, to face the nationally-ranked Royals of Queens University of Charlotte at 4:30 p.m.
 
LMU L Club
Register to become an L Club member today. 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.  
 
Stay Up to Date
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 2020-21 season.