HARROGATE, TENN. – Anderson University Men's Basketball (22-2, 16-2 SAC) suffered a heartbreaking 78-87 setback on the road against conference opponent Lincoln Memorial (15-9, 11-7 SAC) despite second-half push Saturday evening.
"Proud of how hard we played tonight." said head coach
Jimmie Williams.
The first half started tightly contested with the Trojans responding to each bucket by the Railsplitters. LMU pulled away, recording an 11-point lead with 10 minutes left in the opening half after a ten-point run. Anderson came out of the break strong with answered buckets but were unable to close the gap at the end.
"The outcome isn't what we wanted but it had nothing to do with effort." added Williams. "I did not have us ready to play and that's on me. They made some wild shots early and it got them going and we didn't get the stops necessary to win. Again, none of that was effort. It was all tactical. We can fix that. They made so many tough shots at the end of the clock in the first half. In the second half, it seemed like every time we went on a run, they hit a big one. Credit to those guys. They played great. We will show our character in our response."
Freshman
Rashawn Inglemon (Sacramento, Calif.) led the Trojans with 22 points on the board while grabbing four boards and shooting 85.7% from the charity stripe. Junior
Osmar Garcia-Araujo notched his sixth double-double of the season, putting up 16 points with six assists and 10 boards. Senior
Malachi Reeves (Lexington, S.C.) also added double digits to the Trojan's total with 11 points and three rebounds while shooting 66.6% from the floor and 60% from behind the arc.
Despite the Railsplitters leading the contest in all major statistical categories, Anderson posted 38 points in the paint to LMU's 22.
The Black and Gold round out their final few road contests when they travel to SAC opponent Catawba on Wednesday, Feb. 18. Tipoff is slated for 7:30 p.m.
