HARROGATE, Tenn. - Never trailing for the entire 40 minutes, Anderson University women's basketball held off a furious rally from host Lincoln Memorial to capture an 82-78 road victory Wednesday evening in South Atlantic Conference action at Tex Turner Arena.

The triumph snaps a brief two-game setback streak and gives the Trojans their eighth win of the season and first of 2015, pushing their record to 8-3 overall and 5-2 in SAC play. The win also gives AU its second regular-season sweep over the Lady Railsplitters in the last three years, as it clings to a current three-game winning streak in the all-time series.

Anderson out-rebounded the league's top rebounding team, 41-36, despite LMU averaging 49.9 rebounds per game coming into Wednesday's contest. Every Trojan that saw action on the floor grabbed at least one rebound, as sophomore forward Alexis Dillard grabbed a game-high seven rebounds to go along with her 14 points, which matched a season-high.

Dillard followed senior sharpshooter Lesley Woods in the point column, as the Raleigh, N.C. native drained five 3-pointers en route to a team-high 15 points. The five treys marked the fourth time this season Woods has connected on at least four 3-pointers for a game, as she tallied her seventh game scoring in double figures. For her career, Woods has made 100 appearances for the Black and Gold.

Sophomore Nakia Young rounded out AU's double-figure scorers with 11 points, including a 5-for-6 performance from the free throw line. The 11-point performance was Young's highest scoring output on the season, while also grabbing five boards. Senior Sierra Simpson added just six points, but dished out a season-high nine assists and totaled three steals in 29 minutes.

After scoring the first five points of the game with Woods' 3-pointer followed by a fast-break lay-in from junior Jasmine Franklin, the Trojans forced Lincoln Memorial to take an early timeout in the first three minutes of the contest. Following the break, LMU bounced back and eventually evened the score at 7-7 at the 13:31 mark in the first half.

Facing the deadlock, a corner 3-pointer from junior guard Madison Floyd handed AU a lead it would not relinquish for the rest of the contest, as Floyd would eventually end the game with nine points. The Floyd trey began a 15-3 spurt for the Trojans, as junior Katie Davis capped off the run with back-to-back buckets eventually leading to her season-high nine points. LMU's Katrina Ottesen broke the scoring drought with a basket, making the score 20-10 with 8:09 remaining.

The closest the home side would come for the remainder of the period was seven, but the Anderson offense was too much to handle, taking a 41-30 lead into halftime. The Trojans shot 48.6 percent (18-for-37) from the field, including a 4-for-9 (44.4 percent) performance from behind the arc and held LMU to a 36.7 shooting percentage.

In the second half, Anderson would stretch its lead to as much as 18 when Franklin buried a jumper with 16:42 left. Despite the double-digit lead, LMU began to slowly cut into the deficit, bringing the score within single digits of nine when Aisjah Lee connected on her only 3-pointer of the game with just under 12 minutes remaining.

AU answered the 3-pointer by scoring the next five points, beginning with a 3-pointer from Woods. Anderson would eventually take another 16-point lead when Dillard sunk two free throws with 8:07 left, but LMU would answer with back-to-back unanswered 3-pointers from Megan Pittman and Shea Coker.

Lee followed the two 3-pointers with a lay-in to close out the quick 8-0 run for the Lady Railsplitters. Immediately following the Lee bucket, Woods struck again following the spurt with her final 3-pointer of the contest, but that led to an AU scoring drought. The Lady Railsplitters scored the next seven points, bringing the Trojan lead to within four at 66-62 with just over four minutes left on the clock.

The visitors, who had not scored in two minutes, began a run of their own as Simpson snapped the LMU stretch with a jumper, which would eventually begin a 7-0 run giving the Trojans an 11-point lead at the two-minute mark.

The series of runs continued as the Lincoln Memorial offense chipped away at the AU lead once again, as it jumped out to a 12-3 run, bringing the Lady Railsplitters within two points with 45 seconds left. Five of the 12 points by LMU during the run came from the free throw line.

In a game that was decided at the free throw line, Anderson squeaked out the battle making six straight free throws in the final 33 seconds to seal the road victory. In the final two minutes of the game, the teams combined for 21 free throw attempts, as AU made 7-for-12 in the stretch.

"This was a great road win for our program, Lincoln Memorial is a very tough and well-coached team," Anderson head coach Jimmy Garrity said. "I thought we played an excellent first half and, I think, we only ran maybe one or two set plays. We did a great job in transition and making plays. I'm very proud of this team for keeping their composure and hitting some big free throws at the end. We look forward to another challenge this Saturday."

Lincoln Memorial was led by substitute Shea Coker with a game-high 18 points, headlined by four 3-pointers. Teammate Katrina Ottesen added 13 points, while Pittman and Ashley Pritchett added 10 points.

The Trojans continue SAC play on Saturday when they travel to in-state rival Coker. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.