Watch (NCAA.com) | Tickets

The Lincoln Memorial men's basketball team has advanced to its fourth NCAA Division II Elite Eight in program history and will face the Cal State San Bernardino Coyotes on Tuesday at 9:30 p.m. ET (8:30 CT) in Evansville, Ind., at the Ford Center. The Railsplitters are coming off an 89-83 win over No. 4 seed USC Aiken in last Tuesday's Southeast Regional Championship game in Augusta, Ga., when they held off a late Pacers rally to win a regional and cut down the nets for the fourth time since 2016 and first time with Jeremiah Samarrippas as head coach.
 
The Railsplitters (30-4) and Coyotes (30-3) both won by the same score in their Regional Championship games, as Cal State San Bernardino defeated No. 1 seed Point Loma 89-83 on Monday, March 17 in San Diego. In Lincoln Memorial's triumph over USC Aiken, Chase Rankin went for 17 points, 10 rebounds, six assists, two steals and a block to lead the Railsplitters to victory. Rankin went 4-for-4 at the free throw line in the final 30 seconds to stave off the hard-charging Pacers, who cut a 75-59 deficit with 3:54 to play to 85-83 with 35 seconds left on the clock.
 
This will be the first meeting in series history between the Railsplitters and Coyotes.
 
Cal State San Bernardino is led in scoring by senior guard Brandon Knapper and his 19.2 points per game. Knapper also leads the Coyotes in assists (4.0 per game) while fellow senior guard Darius Mickens is the team leader in rebounding at 8.7 per game, adding a dozen points per game. Junior guard Dontrell Shuler (16.5 points, 3.7 rebounds) and senior forward Eddie Davis (13.9 points, 6.4 boards) are the other two Coyotes who put up double-digit points per game.
 
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. Cal State San Bernardino was ranked No. 8 and No. 6, respectively, in those votes.
 
RAILSPLITTER STRIKES (through games played March 14)

• Lincoln Memorial leads the SAC in assists per game (19.4, fourth in Division II), field goal percentage (52.1, second), rebounding margin (+8.8, fifth), scoring margin (+16.8, fourth) and scoring offense (88.0 points per game, eighth).
• Rankin stands at first in Division II in both total assists (245) and assists per game (7.2). The graduate guard's 3.10 assist-to-turnover ratio leads the SAC and ranks No. 11 nationally.
• Martez Brown's 299 total rebounds leads the league and ranks No. 8 in the country.
• Matthew Sells has made 78 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. 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 First Team All-Region by the National Association of Basketball Coaches and Second Team All-Region by the Division II Conference Commissioners Association.
• Jordan Walters won the Elite 23 Award, which is presented to the student-athlete in the SAC with the highest GPA in his sport.

SCOUTING CAL STATE SAN BERNARDINO: The Coyotes won both the California Collegiate Athletic Association regular season (20-2) and tournament championships to enter the West Regional as the No. 2 seed. They beat No. 7 seed Montana State Billings 63-57 in the first round before defeating No. 6 seed Cal State San Marcos 67-61 in the Regional Semifinal.
 
The Coyotes are 11-0 at home, 11-2 on the road and 8-1 at neutral sites. They have won 15 games in a row with their last loss coming back on Jan. 28 at Cal State San Marcos (98-85). Cal State San Bernardino is 1-1 against nationally ranked teams, losing to No. 8 Central Oklahoma 87-75 on Nov. 26 in addition to the win over Point Loma in the West Regional Final.
 
The Elite Eight No. 5 seed Coyotes lead all of Division II in rebounding margin (+13.6) while leading their league in scoring margin (+14.5), scoring offense (88.5 points per game), and 3-point percentage (39.2), ranking 6^th, 7^th, and 17^th, respectively, in those categories nationally.
 
Knapper has attempted the most 3-pointers (274) in all of Division II this season while making the third-most (104). Mickens' 287 total rebounds lead the CCAA and are 14^th nationally.
 
NCAA Division II Elite Eight Schedule (all times CT)
 
Elite Eight (Tuesday, March 21)
Game 1: No. 3 Black Hills State vs No. 6 Minnesota Duluth (Noon)
Game 2: No. 2 West Liberty vs No. 7 New Haven (2:30 p.m.)
Game 3: No. 1 Nova Southeastern vs No. 8 Missouri-St. Louis (6 p.m.)
Game 4: No. 4 Cal State San Bernardino vs No. 5 Lincoln Memorial (8:30 p.m.)
 
Final Four (Thursday, March 23)
Game 5: Winner Game 1 vs Winner Game 2 (1 p.m.)
Game 6: Winner Game 3 vs Winner Game 4 (3:30 p.m.)
 
Championship Game (Saturday, March 25)
Game 7: Winner Game 5 vs Winner Game 6 (2 p.m.)
 
Up Next
The winner of this game will advance to the Final Four on Thursday to play either Nova Southeastern or Missouri-St. Louis at 3:30 p.m. CT (4:30 p.m. ET).