Men’s Basketball loses to No. 5 LMU, 71-68

MARS HILL, N.C. - No. 5-ranked Lincoln Memorial escaped Mars Hill with a 71-68 victory inside Stanford Arena. The Railsplitters improve to 21-0 overall, 13-0 in the South Atlantic Conference. The Lions see their three-game win streak snapped and fall to 8-13 overall, 5-8 in the league.

Lincoln Memorial's D'Mario Curry led all scorers with 21 points. Darryl Garrett and Brandon Armstrong added 15 and 11 points, respectively.

Sammy Emile led Mars Hill with 19 points. Donterious Hughes followed up with 12 points.

Mars Hill opened the game on a 5-0 run. The Lions led 15-11 when Steven Gatkuoth swatted a Darryl Garrett dunk attempt at the 9:58 mark.

At the 7:32 mark of the first half, the Railsplitters began a 7-0 run and took its first lead, 19-17 off a steal and fastbreak layup by Wally Jones.

Mars Hill regained the advantage, 27-24, on a fastbreak slam by Julian Mack with 1:20 left, but the Railsplitters scored the final four points to take a 28-27 advantage at halftime. Emile had 10 first half points.

Lincoln Memorial took a four-point lead 35-31 off a putback by Desmond Johnson at 16:38 mark. The Lions retook the lead 47-46 off a layup by Dallas Johnson at the 9:12 mark.

Austin Patton gave the Lions a 60-58 lead at the 3:55 mark on a fastbreak layup. Curry converted an old-fashioned three-point play to give Lincoln Memorial the lead 61-60 with 3:20 left in the game.

Two free throws by Johnson gave Mars Hill a 64-63 advantage with 1:20 left in the game, but two free throws by Garrett with 51 seconds left gave the Railsplitters the lead for good.

With 15 seconds left in the game, Emile had the ball stolen by Garrett who took it the other way for a dunk to make the score 67-64. Mars Hill's Marshall Adams drilled a trey with seven seconds remaining to cut the deficit to 69-68, but the Lions were unable to account for everyone on the out-of-bounds heave down the court after the shot, and Armstrong hit two free throws with .1 left on the clock for the final margin.

Lincoln Memorial was 23-65 from the field, 6-21 from three-point range, and 19-27 from the free throw line. Mars Hill was 24-54 from the field, 6-11 from distance, and 14-18 from the charity stripe.

The Lions will host Brevard on Saturday. Tipoff is set for 4 p.m. ET.