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LMU Athletics

 

Rock Hill, SC – No. 14 Lenoir-Rhyne started overtime with a 6-0 run and held on for an 82-78 win over No. 8 Lincoln Memorial University in the South Atlantic Conference Tournament championship game on Friday.

It was a back-and-forth affair between the top two seeds in the tournament. The Bears jumped out to leads of 6-2, 11-6 and 23-17 before the Railsplitters rallied to tie the game at 30 with 4:47 to play in the first half. Lenoir-Rhyn closed the half on a 10-5 spurt to take a 40-35 lead.

Lincoln Memorial came out fast to start the second half, ripping off a 9-3 run to take its first lead of the game at 44-43. Lenoir-Rhyne regained the lead on a three pointer, 46-44, but Mahmoud Bangura drove the tin and completed the old-fashioned three-point play to put the Railsplitters up 47-46 with 14 minutes left in the game. The Bears knotted the game at 47-47, but a 7-3 run saw LMU’s lead grow to 54-50 with just over 10 minutes remaining in the game.

The lead grew to 65-59 with just over five minutes remaining in regulation. At the 4:30 mark of the game, Wes Enis connected on a mid range jump shot to surpass the 1,000 points mark in his short 1.5-year career.

The Railsplitters took a 69-61 lead with three minutes remaining in the game to match its largest lead of the game to that point. Lenoir-Rhyne refused to go quietly, stringing together a 7-0 run to cut the score to 69-68 with just over one minute remaining in the game. The Bears tied the game at 69-69 as the clock crept below one minute. Each team added one more bucket, but neither emerged victorious in regulation, sending the game to overtime.

After falling behind 77-71 in the extra frame, the Railsplitters closed to within 77-76 with two minutes to play. But Lenoir-Rhyne answered and held on for the 82-78 win.

Lincoln Memorial was led in scoring by Elyjah Freeman who tallied his 12th double-double of the season with 29 points and 15 rebounds. Wes Enis followed with 22 points and five rebounds. Mahmoud Bangura “Mo” added 11 points and five rebounds. EJ Smith chipped in seven points, Thomas Allard added five points, Jordan Walters and Osmar Garcia-Araujo added two points each to round out scoring for the Railsplitters.

Lincoln Memorial now awaits Selection Sunday to find out its seeding for the NCAA Men’s DII Basketball Tournament.

In the quarterfinal against Wingate, Lincoln Memorial took care of business, taking an 85-67 victory. All five starters scored in double figures for the Railsplitters. Enis led all scorers with 26 points. He was followed by Walters, who nearly tallied a double-double with 17 points and nine rebounds. Freeman turned in a solid 16 point performance. Allard and Jordan each added 10 points in the winning effort. The Lincoln Memorial defense forced Wingate into 20 turnovers, which in turn led to 32 points.

The semifinal game against Carson-Newman was a slugfest. With 23 lead changes and 15 ties, the game was back-and-forth for the most part. The Eagles led the majority of the game, but in the end, the Railsplitters found a way to prevail. Freeman erupted for 32 points and a career-high 19 rebounds. In three games against Carson-Newman, Freeman scored 87 points and hauled in 39 rebounds. Allard added 11 points in the semifinal and Jordan added 10, leaving three players in double figures in the semifinal game.