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The Lincoln Memorial men's basketball team earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed in the Southeast Regional and will face No. 6 seed Lander at noon on Saturday in Augusta's Christenberry Fieldhouse. The Railsplitters (27-4) and Bearcats (22-9) are familiar with each other as Lander head coach Omar Wattad spent six seasons on the coaching staff at Lincoln Memorial before going south to Greenwood, and assistant coach Harrison Burton spent time in Harrogate as well the last few seasons.
 
Lincoln Memorial and Lander have only faced off one previous time in series history, a 98-71 Railsplitters win on March 12, 2016 in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament in Harrogate.
 
Lincoln Memorial is coming off an 86-78 upset loss to UVA Wise in last Saturday's South Atlantic Conference Tournament Semifinal, as SAC Player of the Year Bradley Dean went off for 35 points to spark the Cavaliers.
 
Lander boasts Second Team All-Peach Belt guard Jared Sherfield, who averages 12.8 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game, and Third Team All-Conference guard Jacob Cooper, who produces 13.1 points, 2.9 rebounds and 4.3 assists per contest. The Bearcats are a three-headed monster offensively, as sophomore Noah Dunn averages over a dozen points per game as well (12.9).
 
Lincoln Memorial was ranked No. 11 in the D2SIDA poll released Wednesday and No. 12 in the National Association of Basketball Coaches poll from Tuesday.
 
RAILSPLITTER STRIKES (through games played March 5)

• Lincoln Memorial leads the SAC in assists per game (19.9, fourth in Division II), field goal percentage (52.2, first), rebounding margin (+9.2, fourth), scoring margin (+17.5, fourth) and scoring offense (88.5 points per game, eighth).
• Rankin stands at first in Division II in both total assists (225) and assists per game (7.3). The graduate guard's 3.21 assist-to-turnover ratio leads the SAC and ranks ninth nationally.
• Martez Brown's 281 total rebounds leads the league and ranks No. 11 in the country.
• Matthew Sells has made 73 3-pointers this season, good for fourth in the conference.
• Rankin earned the SAC Men's Basketball Player of the Week honor on Jan. 16, while redshirt sophomore guard Me'Kell Burries won it on Jan. 9 and Feb. 28. Quay Kennedy earned the honor on Feb. 6.
• Rankin and Kennedy were voted First Team All-SAC, while Burries landed on the Third Team in the vote of the league's coaches as announced last week by the conference office.
• Rankin advanced to being named to the Top 50 Watch List for the Bevo Francis Award on Feb. 15, which is given to the player who had the finest overall season within Small College Basketball. The point guard was also voted Second Team All-Region by the Division II Conference Commissioners Association.

SCOUTING LANDER: The Bearcats finished fourth in the Peach Belt regular season standings (22-9, 12-6 PBC) before falling to Augusta 86-72 last Sunday in the conference tournament championship game. Lander has two ranked wins this season, defeating then-No. 11 Augusta 81-63 on Feb. 8 and then-No. 22 North Georgia on Jan. 7 (76-75), with both games coming at home. The Bearcats are 13-3 at home, 7-6 on the road and 2-0 at neutral sites. Lander is 3-1 against SAC foes this season, as their only loss came at Newberry on Nov. 22 (65-57).
 
Lander is a high-volume perimeter shooting team, leading the Peach Belt and ranking fourth nationally in 3-pointers made per game (11.3). Its 16.7 assists per game also lead the league and rank No. 18 in Division II.
 
Sophomore guard Tommy Moore stands at fifth nationally in assist/turnover ratio (3.81) while the freshman Cooper's 4.2 assists per game are third in the Peach Belt and No. 56 nationally.
 
NCAA Division II Southeast Regional Schedule
 
Quarterfinals (Saturday, March 11)
Game 1: No. 3 Lincoln Memorial vs No. 6 Lander (Noon)
Game 2: No. 2 UNC Pembroke vs No. 7 North Georgia (2:30 p.m.)
Game 3: No. 1 Augusta vs No. 8 Emmanuel (5 p.m.)
Game 4: No. 4 USC Aiken vs No. 5 Catawba (7:30 p.m.)
 
Semifinals (Sunday, March 12)
Game 5: Winner Game 1 vs Winner Game 2 (5 p.m.)
Game 6: Winner Game 3 vs Winner Game 4 (7:30 p.m.)
 
Final (Tuesday, March 14)
Game 7: Winner Game 5 vs Winner Game 6 (7 p.m.)
 
Up Next
The winner of this game will face either No. 2 UNC Pembroke or No. 7 North Georgia on Sunday at 5 p.m.