HARROGATE, Tenn. – Following just its second true road loss in 713 days, the Lincoln Memorial University men's basketball team returns to game action Wednesday night at Tusculum University. Tip-off from inside Pioneer Arena in Greeneville, Tennessee, is slated for 8 p.m. The eighth-ranked Railsplitters, who sit atop of the 13-team South Atlantic Conference with a 14-2 league record and 16-2 overall mark, look to rebound against the host Pioneers (9-4, 9-4 SAC) and claim their sixth road victory of 2020-21.
 
Wrapping up the regular season on a four-game road swing, LMU's 16 wins are the second-most in NCAA Division II men's basketball. With only one more week of conference play, the Railsplitters will have a chance to claim their ninth SAC regular season championship since 2011 and eighth in the last nine seasons this weekend.
 
How to Follow
Wednesday night's road test will be streamed live via YouTube and live statistics of the SAC matchup can be followed at TusculumPioneers.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, LMU has gone 119-37 (.763) in true road games and completed three undefeated seasons at opposing team's venues. Last year, the Railsplitters were 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 716 days, LMU has suffered just two true road defeats.
 
Hosting Again
Last 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
Despite its setback at Newberry College over the weekend, the Railsplitters remain ranked among the nation's top 10 in both national polls. In the 10th National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II Top 25 regular season poll of 2020-21 announced Tuesday afternoon, LMU is No. 8. The Railsplitters are seventh in the sixth D2SIDA Media Poll of 2021, which was also released Tuesday afternoon. The first NCAA Division II regional rankings of 2020-21 are set to be announced Wednesday after LMU has sat atop of all five regular season D2SIDA Southeast Region polls. 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. The Railsplitters have spent a program record 26-straight weeks ranked in the top 10 dating back to Nov. 19, 2019. LMU has been a top-10 team for 96 total weeks and has appeared in the national polls a total of 145 weeks since December of 2010.
 
Among National Leaders
Continually striving to be elite on both ends of the floor, the Railsplitters lead the nation or are near the top in several offensive and defensive statistical categories including ranking:

• First in total assists (418)
• First in assists per game (23.2)
• First in total three-point field goals made (221)
• First in three-point field goal attempts (535)
• First in total rebounds (748)
• First in defensive rebounds per game (33.06)
• Second in scoring margin (24.7)
• Second in three-point field goals per-game (12.3)
• Second in rebound margin (9.8)
• Third in field-goal percentage (53.1 percent)
• Sixth in assist-turnover ratio (1.65)
• Sixth in scoring offense (93.9)
• Sixth in field-goal percentage defense (39.1)
• Seventh in total steals (129)
• 11th in total rebounds per game (41.56)
• 12th in free throws made (256)

1K Scorers
Redshirt senior guard Devin Whitfield reached 1,000 career points a season ago and needs just 116 more points to get to 2,000, while redshirt junior guard Cameron Henry is only five points away from becoming the program's 31st 1,000-point scorer. With 907 of his 1,884 career points coming during his two seasons at fellow Division II Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville, Whitfield is just 23 points shy of becoming LMU's 32nd (or 31st) 1,000-point scorer. Senior guard Alex Dahling (742) and junior point guard Julius Brown (627) are also within reach of the coveted 1,000-point mark for their Railsplitter careers.
 
Pounced on by the Wolves in the Palmetto State
Seeing its nine-game win streak snapped, LMU dropped a 71-66 decision at Newberry this past Saturday afternoon in South Carolina. For just the second time since the spring of 2019 the Railsplitters were handed a league loss as the host Wolves held LMU to 43.1 percent shooting inside Eleazer Arena. The 66 points represented the lowest point total for the Railsplitter offense since Dec. 8, 2018. The Wolves' physicality and hustle, combined with uncharacteristic poor LMU shooting and untimely turnovers, proved to be insurmountable for the Railsplitters. LMU was outrebounded 39-34 in the upset and trailed for 19:24 of the game. Limited to 33.3 percent (7-of-21) outside shooting and going just 65.2 percent at the free-throw line, the Railsplitters' last lead of the contest came at the 2:51 mark of the first half. Newberry forced 16 LMU turnovers and scored 18 points off the Railsplitters' miscues, while scoring 40 points in the paint and getting 12 points off of 11 offensive boards. The Wolves shot 45.5 percent for the 40 minutes of action and held a five-point advantage at the half. After scoring the first nine points and holding Newberry scoreless for the opening three minutes, LMU's offense became stagnant and the Wolves closed the first half on a 14-3 run. Despite the Railsplitters' best efforts of a late comeback, LMU was unable to connect on a pair of would-be go-ahead three pointers in the closing 90 seconds. Henry led the way for the Railsplitters by scoring 17 points and distributing a team-high five assists. Whitfield and Dahling both finished with 13 points as Whitfield went 5-for-10 from the field and secured eight rebounds while Dahling knocked down a trio of first-half treys. Junior forward Jordan Guest had another near double-double performance, scoring 12 and grabbing a team-best nine boards.
 
Cam Can
In his third season of suiting up for the Blue and Gray, preseason All-American Henry has been impressive. The Chesterfield, Virginia (Lloyd C. Bird HS), native is averaging 14.9 points, 6.2 rebounds and 4.4 assists through the first 18 games of the season. Shooting 51.3 percent from the field, Henry has made 37 steals and 11 blocks. He earned his first SAC AstroTurf Men's Basketball Player of the Week award of his career on Monday, Jan. 18 after leading a quartet of double-figure scorers with 25 points and 12 rebounds in LMU's 100-76 road win at Limestone on Wednesday, Jan. 13. Henry ranks seventh nationally and leads the conference in steals, while 13th in the country in assists (80), 25th in field goals made (97), 28th in points (268), 35th in steals per game (2.1) and 37th in rebounds (111).
 
Willing Whitfield
Although he missed the season opener and played a limited role at Coker (Nov. 24) in his first game of 2020-21, Whitfield has been awe-inspiring. The Lipscomb, Alabama (McAdory HS), native posted 10 consecutive 20-point performances from Dec. 13 – Jan. 23 and has reached double figures in all but two games this season. Whitfield has already collected back-to-back SAC AstroTurf Player of the Week honors on Dec. 21 and Jan. 4 and was named Tennessee Sports Writers Association (TSWA) Men's Basketball Player of the Week on Dec. 22. With 11 20-point outings and two 30-point games, Whitfield has scored 343 points through 17 games played and is averaging 20.2 points and 5.2 rebounds while shooting 56.4 percent from the floor and 43.7 percent from beyond the arc. He ranks 33rd in the nation and is second in the league in scoring as his 59 made three pointers on 135 attempts rank No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, nationally. The 6-foot-5 wing's 123 made field goals are the fifth-most in Division II basketball and he is sixth in the land in points, fifth in three pointers made per game (3.5) and 37th in three-point field goal percentage.
 
All LMU Does is Win
Coming off their best season in terms of winning percentage (.970), the Railsplitters have won 48 of their last 50 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 38 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 only three games by a combined 21 points in the last 712 days.
 
Versus the Pioneers
Wednesday will be the 183rd all-time meeting between the Railsplitters and Tusculum with LMU having won 138 of the matchups. Dominating the series as a whole and nearly unblemished against the Pioneers as of late, the Railsplitters have been victorious versus Tusculum 28 times in the last 29 meetings dating back to January of 2010. LMU is 50-32-1 against the Pioneers in Greeneville but suffered its most recent setback to Tusculum and lone of the 2010's on the road on Feb. 27, 2019. Beginning the new year, the Railsplitters spoiled the Pioneers' 2021 start by claiming a 103-82 win over Tusculum on Jan. 2. With the Pioneers entering B. Frank "Tex" Turner Arena as the 24th-ranked team in the nation, LMU reached the century mark for the third consecutive game and earned its second top-25 victory of 2020-21. It was the Railsplitters' 38th consecutive triumph as LMU shot 60 percent from the field, scored 59 second-half points, forced 21 Tusculum turnovers and obtained a season-high 36 free-throw attempts. Coach Schertz is 29-2 versus the Pioneers.
 
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 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 334-67 record over 13 seasons. Schertz' career winning percentage of .833 is tied for the second-highest of any head coach in men's college basketball history at any NCAA level (minimum 10 seasons). He is tied for second with 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 214-38 (.849) league record.
 
About Tusculum
Led by third-year head coach J.T. Burton, the Pioneers are in fifth place in the SAC standings with a 9-4 conference and overall record. Despite taking nearly a month-long break from competition during the month of December due to COVID-19 circumstances, Tusculum has gained wins over Wingate (87-75), UVA Wise twice (109-96 and 101-82) Carson-Newman (82-72), Catawba (74-72), Coker (58-50), Anderson (60-59) and Mars Hill twice (78-75 and 86-65). The Pioneers' four defeats have come at the hands of LMU (103-82), Newberry (73-66), Limestone (68-61) and nationally-ranked Queens University of Charlotte (85-59). Currently on a three-game win streak, Tusculum hasn't lost since Jan. 20 but has had two games postponed due to COVID-19 circumstances within opponents' programs. Built on physical play, the Pioneers lead the league and rank 12th in the nation in offensive rebounds per game (14.1). Tusculum also leads the SAC in steals per game (8.2) and is 14th nationally in blocks (54) and 16th in blocks per game (4.2). Picked to finish fourth in the conference, Tusculum went 19-13 a season ago and earned the No. 4 seed for the 2020 SAC Tournament after posting a 13-9 league mark. Preseason All-SAC Second Team pick Trenton Gibson, a 6-foot-4 junior guard, leads the team in scoring (18.8 PPG), rebounding (7.6 RPG) and assists (4.3 APG), and is fifth in the country in made free throws (90) and seventh in free-throw attempts (106). Senior James West IV, a 6-foot-1 guard, is also averaging double-figure scoring (15.2 PPG).
 
Looking Ahead
The Railsplitters close out the regular season and wrap up their four-game road trip with Queens and Carson-Newman. LMU heads to Charlotte to face the 19th-ranked Royals Saturday at 2 p.m. before traveling to Jefferson City, Tennessee, next Wednesday, Feb. 24 for an 8 p.m. showdown at Carson-Newman.
 
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.