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The Lincoln Memorial men's basketball team is set to play UVA Wise on Saturday at 5 p.m. in the South Atlantic Conference Tournament Semifinal at Timmons Arena in Greenville, S.C. The Railsplitters (No. 1 seed in Mountain Division) and Cavaliers (No. 3 seed in Mountain Division) will be meeting for the third time this season. Lincoln Memorial most recently won 92-79 on Feb. 22 at in the regular season finale at Tex Turner Arena after also defeating UVA Wise 94-69 on Jan. 4 in Wise. The Railsplitters are 31-9 all-time against the Cavaliers, and this will be the two teams' first neutral site game.
 
Lincoln Memorial cruised to a 100-73 victory over Coker on Wednesday night at Tex Turner Arena in the SAC Quarterfinals behind a team-best 17 points from Jordan Guest and a 15-point, 12-rebound double-double from Martez Brown.
 
The Cavaliers boast newly-crowned SAC Player of the Year Bradley Dean, who leads the league and ranks No. 23 in Division II in scoring at 20.9 points per game.
 
Lincoln Memorial was ranked No. 8 in the D2SIDA poll released Wednesday and No. 9 in the National Association of Basketball Coaches poll from Tuesday.
 
RAILSPLITTER STRIKES (through games played March 2)

• Lincoln Memorial leads the SAC in assists per game (20.1, fourth in Division II), field goal percentage (52.6, first), rebounding margin (+9.2, fourth), scoring margin (+18.3, third) and scoring offense (88.8 points per game, eighth).
• Rankin stands at first in Division II in both total assists (217) and assists per game (7.2). The graduate guard's 3.14 assist-to-turnover ratio leads the SAC and ranks ninth nationally.
• Martez Brown's 267 total rebounds leads the league and ranks No. 17 in the country.
• Matthew Sells has made 69 3-pointers this season, good for fifth 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 Thursday 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.

SCOUTING UVA WISE: The Cavaliers won 72-71 at Newberry Wednesday behind a last-minute 3-pointer from Dean to advance to the weekend in Greenville. The Cavaliers' 40.2 percent shooting from beyond the arc leads the SAC and ranks sixth in Division II, while their +6.3 average margin of victory is second in the league.
 
In addition to Dean, UVA Wise has All-SAC Second Team forward Luke Lawson, who ranks second in the league in both blocks per game (1.97) and 3-point shooting percentage (43.6).
 
Final Regular Season SAC Men's Basketball Standings
 
Mountain Division                Overall           Conference
Lincoln Memorial                  26-3                 16-2
Tusculum                                15-10               11-7
UVA Wise                               17-11               9-9
Carson-Newman                     14-14               8-10
Limestone                               13-15               8-10
Emory & Henry                       15-13               6-12
Mars Hill                                  9-19                 4-14
 
Piedmont Division                Overall           Conference
Catawba                                  20-7                 15-3
Newberry                                19-9                 12-6
Wingate                                  15-12               10-8
Coker                                      12-16               6-12
Lenoir-Rhyne                          11-15               6-12
Anderson                                 9-19                 6-12
 
Up Next
The winner of this game will face either Catawba or Tusculum in the SAC Tournament Championship on Sunday at 4 p.m. in Timmons Arena. The Indians are the No. 1 seed in the Piedmont Division while the Pioneers are the No. 2 seed in the Mountain Division, and they will face off at approximately 7:30 p.m. on Saturday night.