HARROGATE, Tenn. – For the fourth time in program history, the Lincoln Memorial University men's basketball team will play for a NCAA Division II Southeast Regional Championship crown Tuesday night inside B. Frank "Tex" Turner Arena. The 13th-ranked and second-seeded Railsplitters (16-3) host fourth-seeded Emmanuel College out of Conference Carolinas in the 2021 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Championship title game at 7 p.m. in Harrogate.  
 
Attempting to capture its third Division II Southeast Regional championship since 2016, LMU has won 29-straight home games dating back to March 6, 2019.
 
The Railsplitters began their 2020-21 NCAA postseason quest with a dominant 80-66 victory over sixth-seeded Tusculum University Sunday evening in the first semifinal of the Division II Southeast Regional Championship. LMU received a quarterfinal bye in the NCAA regional championship as the No. 2 seed.
 
The visiting Lions (17-6) routed top-seeded Belmont Abbey 76-53 in the second semifinal matchup Sunday night after ousting fifth-seeded Queens University of Charlotte 80-78 in the Division II Southeast Regional Championship's second quarterfinal Saturday night.
 
How to Follow
Tuesday night's regional championship title game will be streamed live on the LMU Sports Network via Stretch Internet with the voice of the Railsplitters, Rusty Peace, providing play-by-play of the game and former LMU men's basketball head coach and 2012 LMU Athletes Hall of Fame inductee L.J. Kilby supplying color commentary. Live statistics of the NCAA regional final can be followed by visiting LMURailsplitters.com. As usual, in-game updates will be available on LMU Railsplitter athletics' official Twitter account, @LMURailsplitter.

NCAA Championship History
Having reached back-to-back Final Fours in 2016 and 2017, the Railsplitters are 16-8 all-time in NCAA Championship games. With a 2-1 record in NCAA regional championship title games, LMU won the 2016 Division II Southeast Regional Championship with a 103-80 victory over Lenoir-Rhyne inside Tex Turner Arena and was also triumphant at the 2017 Division II Southeast Regional Championship in Charlotte, North Carolina, the following year, ousting top-seeded and host Queens, 82-68. The Railsplitters' lone Division II Southeast Regional Championship title tilt loss came in 2018 when LMU was defeated 69-57 by the seventh-ranked and second-seeded Royals. Holding a 13-6 record in NCAA regional championships, the Railsplitters have posted an impressive 9-1 mark over their last four Division II Southeast Regional Championship appearances. With its win over Tusculum Sunday, LMU moved to 8-1 in regional championship openers and has now won eight straight dating back to its first NCAA regional championship appearance in 2011.

A Ninth Top-Two NCAA Southeast Regional Championship Seed
For the ninth time in program history the Railsplitters are a top-two seed in the Division II Southeast Regional Championship. Making eight consecutive NCAA Championship appearances from 2011-18, LMU has earned 10 regional championship berths in 11 seasons. Claiming their second-straight Division II Southeast Reginal Championship bid, the Railsplitters were the No. 1 seed for the 2020 NCAA Southeast Regional Championship a year ago prior to the COVID-19 global pandemic shutting everything down. The only year LMU was not selected as a top-two seed in the Division II Southeast Regional Championship out of its 10 berths was in 2012 at People's Bank and Trust Arena in Montevallo, Alabama.

Hosting Again
The NCAA Division II Championships Committee chose predetermined regional sites for the 2021 NCAA Division II Men's and Women's Basketball Championships and for the fifth time in seven years Tex Turner Arena was 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. It marks the fourth time in seven years the Division II Southeast Regional Championship has taken place in Harrogate after last year's regional championship was canceled just two days before tip-off.

Nine Times as Nice
No other South Atlantic Conference men's basketball program has won more regular season crowns than the Railsplitters as LMU captured its league record ninth title in 11 years in late February, surpassing Lenoir-Rhyne. Now with 14 combined, regular season and conference tournament, SAC championships since 2011, the Railsplitters are tied for the league record (Catawba) for total SAC titles. LMU finished its conference slate at 14-3, securing the most victories and highest winning percentage (.824) in the 13-team league. Per the SAC's men's basketball policies, the team with the highest winning percentage based on games against conference opponents shall be declared the conference champion. Finishing a half game ahead of league runner-up Queens (13-3, .813), the Railsplitters were able to win the SAC despite having their final two regular season games, along with LMU's home contest against Coker (Feb. 6), canceled due to complexities with COVID-19 contact tracing.

A Top-10 Staple
Entering NCAA postseason play, the Railsplitters are ranked among the nation's top 15 in both national polls. In the final National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Division II Top 25 poll of 2020-21 announced last Tuesday afternoon, LMU is No. 13 for the second consecutive week. The Railsplitters are 15th in the ninth D2SIDA Media Poll of 2021 for the second-straight week as well, which was also released last Tuesday afternoon. LMU has spent a program record 29-straight weeks ranked in the top 15 dating back to Nov. 19, 2019. The Railsplitters have appeared in the national polls a total of 148 weeks since December of 2010. The 2021 NCAA Division II Men's Basketball Southeast Regional Championship featured four nationally-ranked programs, including No. 13 LMU as the highest-ranked team. However, the Railsplitters are the last standing ranked team in the Division II Southeast Regional Championship as 19th-ranked Belmont Abbey, No. 22 Queens and 23rd-ranked Carson-Newman have all been eliminated.

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 (447)
• First in assists per game (22.4)
• First in defensive rebounds per game (32.75)
• Second in field-goal percentage (52.4 percent)
• Third in total three-point field goals made (235)
• Third in scoring margin (22.1)
• Third in three-point field goals per-game (11.8)
• Fifth in scoring offense (92.2)
• Fifth in field-goal percentage defense (39.2)
• Seventh in assist-turnover ratio (1.54)
• Seventh in rebound margin (8.7)
• Ninth in total rebounds per game (41.25)
• 11th in three-point field goal attempts (581)
• 13th in total rebounds (825)

All-SAC Recognition for Whitfield and Henry
Two of the best guards in the nation, redshirt senior Devin Whitfield and redshirt junior Cameron Henry, landed All-SAC accolades to begin the month of March. Whitfield picked up his second-straight All-SAC First Team honor, while Henry was selected to the All-SAC Second Team for the second consecutive season. The preseason All-American and 2020 all-region duo has put together another outstanding campaign this season, accounting for 36.2 percent of the Railsplitters' scoring. Representing the team's top two scorers, Whitfield is averaging 19.6 points in 19 outings and Henry 14.7 points in 20 games.
 
Whitfield's 62 made three pointers in 2020-21 are the ninth-most in the nation while he ranks 12th nationally in threes made per game (3.3), 21st in three-point field goal attempts (144), 29th in three-point field-goal percentage (43.1), 31st in points scored (373) and 32nd in total made field goals (133). Among the top 50 players in the country in both scoring and shooting (56.1 percent), Whitfield is third on the team in rebounding (4.9 RPG). The Lipscomb, Alabama (McAdory HS), native has scored in double figures in all but two games he has competed in after missing the season opener and playing a limited role in the second game of the year at Coker (Nov. 24). Whitfield put together an astonishing run of 10-straight 20-point showings from Dec. 13 to Jan. 23, which included a pair of 30-point outings.
 
Perhaps LMU's most dynamic playmaker on both ends of the floor, Henry's 42 steals this season are the 17th-most in all of Division II men's basketball. He ranks 24th in the nation in steals per game (2.1) while among the top 70 players in the land in both total assists (85) and assists per game (4.2). Averaging the second-most rebounds of any Railsplitter (6.1 RPG), Henry leads LMU in blocks (12) and is shooting at 50.7 percent from the floor. A native of Chesterfield, Virginia (Lloyd C. Bird HS), Henry has posted double-figure scoring in 15 different games this season and reached 20 points on five occasions. With a trio of double-doubles, Henry has reached double-digit rebounding three times and came just one rebound shy of a triple-double in the 78-57 victory at Coker on Nov. 24.

1K Scorers
With a driving layup early in the second half of the Railsplitters' Division II Southeast Regional Championship semifinal win over Tusculum, Whitfield became LMU's 32nd 1,000-point scorer. Reaching the coveted scoring mark in only 52 games donning the Blue and Gray, Whitfield needs just 86 more points to get to 2,000 for his career. Of his 1,914 career points, 907 came during Whitfield's two seasons at fellow Division II Trevecca Nazarene University in Nashville. Henry became the program's 31st 1,000-point scorer with a first-half three pointer at Tusculum on Wednesday, Feb. 17 and has scored 1,021 points in his Railsplitter career. Senior guard Alex Dahling (757) and junior point guard Julius Brown (635) are also within reach of the momentous 1,000-point mark for their LMU careers.

A Fourth Regional Championship Semifinal Win
Following a 25-day layoff from competition due to complexities with COVID-19 contact tracing that canceled the Railsplitters' final two regular season games and kept the team out of the 2021 SAC Pilot Flying J Men's Basketball Championship, second-seeded LMU was gritty in its first NCAA postseason win since March 11, 2018. Matching Tusculum's physicality in the 80-66 triumph, the Railsplitters outrebounded the visiting Pioneers 40-34 and held a plus-12 margin (42-30) in points in the paint. LMU never trailed in the contest and earned its fourth Division II Southeast Regional Championship semifinal victory in program history behind 47.5 percent shooting and 43 second-half points. Led by junior forward Jordan Guest's fourth double-double of the season and five double-figure scorers, the Railsplitters avenged their 90-74 regular season finale loss at Tusculum on Feb. 17. Elite defensively inside Tex Turner Arena, LMU held the Pioneers to just 34.4 percent shooting from the field and only 19 percent (4-of-21) from distance. Forcing 18 turnovers, the Railsplitters overcame 18 turnovers of their own and outscored Tusculum 20-6 in fastbreak points. LMU made its first three shots and scored the first nine points of the game, keeping the Pioneers without a basket for nearly the opening four minutes. Guest finished with a team-high 19 points and game-high 12 boards, while Henry scored 17 points on 7-for-13 shooting and brought down eight rebounds. Dahling added 15 points on 5-for-9 shooting, which included going 3-for-6 from deep, and four assists as sophomore guard Jeremiah Keene and Whitfield both tallied 11 points apiece. Redshirt sophomore guard Xavier Bledson handed out a team-high five assists in 13 minutes off the bench.

All LMU Does is Win
Coming off their best season in terms of winning percentage (.970), the Railsplitters have gone 49-4 over the past two seasons. 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 39 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 four games in the last 740 days.
 
Versus the Lions
Tuesday night's Division II Southeast Regional Championship title game will be the first-ever meeting between the two schools on the hardwood.

About LMU Basketball
The second-winningest Division II program of the 2010's (.845), the Railsplitters have won 14 total SAC titles since 2011. Selected as the top seed of the Division II Men's Basketball Southeast Regional Championship four of the last seven years, LMU has ended the season ranked either No. 1 or No. 2 three times in the last six seasons. The only school in Division II to have reached 30 wins in five of the last seven 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 nine of the last 11 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 164-11 (.937). The 164 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 335-68 record over 13 seasons. Schertz' career winning percentage of .831 is the third-highest of any head coach in men's college basketball history at any NCAA level (minimum 10 seasons). He is just behind Gonzaga head coach Mark Few (.834) and Nova Southeastern leader Jim Crutchfield (.841) among active head coaches with at least 10 years at the helm. 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 214-39 (.846) league record.

About Emmanuel
Led by 2021 Conference Carolinas Coach of the Year TJ Rosene, the Lions will be playing in their first-ever NCAA regional championship title game. Becoming fully-fledged Division II members just three seasons ago in 2018-19, Emmanuel is located in Franklin Springs, Georgia, and has a total student enrollment under 1,000. In their final year as NAIA members, the Lions reached the 2014 national championship game where they were narrowly defeated 70-65 by Vanguard University. Going 12-2 in Conference Carolinas play, Emmanuel claimed the 2020-21 regular season championship for its second regular season conference title as a NCAA member. The Lions won the 2019 Conference Carolinas tournament to reach their first Division II Southeast Regional Championship where they fell to top-seeded Queens 76-72 in the opening round. In this year's Conference Carolinas Men's Basketball Championship title game, Emmanuel fell 82-70 to Belmont Abbey. Posting a 17-6 overall record in 2020-21, the Lions own a season-opening Division I road win over the ASUN Conference's Stetson University (64-61). Conference Carolinas Player of the Year KJ Jones II, a 6-foot-6 sophomore guard, is 11th in the nation in scoring (22.1 PPG) and leads Emmanuel in assists (3.2 APG) while tied for a team-best six rebounds per game. He leads the country in both free-throw makes (203) and attempts (223) with 91 percent accuracy at the foul line. The Lions also feature All-Conference Carolinas Second Team selection Tyonn Stuckey and third-team member Brandon Simpson. A 5-foot-11 senior guard, Stuckey averages 10.9 points and 2.9 assists per outing as 6-foot-4 senior guard Simpson is averaging 10.5 points.
 
Looking Ahead
With a win Tuesday night, LMU would punch its ticket to the 2021 NCAA Division II Elite Eight held next Wednesday-Saturday, March 24-27 inside the Ford Center in Evansville, Indiana.

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.