No. 1 Anderson Earns Finals Berth with 69-51 Win Over No. 5 Lincoln Memorial
GREENVILLE, S.C. - For the second consecutive season the Anderson University women's basketball team has advanced to the South Atlantic Conference Tournament championship game.
AU (22-5) knocked off Lincoln Memorial (17-12) 69-51 on Saturday at Timmons Arena in Greenville, spoiling the Railsplitters' first-ever appearance in the SAC Tournament semifinals thanks to a stellar effort offensively and defensively.
The result sent the Trojans, the league's regular season champions, through to Sunday's title game. They'll face the winner of No. 2 Newberry and No. 3 Wingate at 1 p.m.
Anderson last won the conference tourney in 2013 and fell to Newberry in last March's title showdown.
SAC Player of the Year Jennifer Monroe had another huge outing for the victors, recording her 10th double-double of 2015-16 with 19 points and 16 rebounds.
AU got 12 points from Madison Floyd, followed by Alexis Dillard (10), Nakia Young (9), Heather Jankowy (8), Cassie Ketchum (4), Bailey Sims (4), Sara Goble (2) and Tamia Eatmon (1).
A gutty effort by Krystal Evans' charges was paced by Jasmine Kelly (9), followed by Stephanie Smith (8), Kiara Rawls (7), Karsen Sims (7), Ross Mathis (5), Megan Pittman (4), Britney Guy (4), Sydnie Anderson (3), Josey Harding (3), and Lakeisha Beasley (1).
However, the Black and Gold would prefer winning a berth instead of having to wait to be awarded one.
Having seized a 17-point lead at halftime the Trojans needed only to keep the Railsplitters at arm's length in the second half. However, the eventual winners scored the first eight points of the third period and an LMU scoring drought that began midway through the second quarter extended through the first three minutes of the third.
That allowed Anderson to lead by as many as 26 points and take an insurmountable 54-30 lead into the fourth quarter.
Both teams had shooting woes in the first quarter but Anderson exited the period with a 19-14 edge, getting nine of its points from the foul line while hitting just four field goals.
In the second frame, however, the Trojans took charge.
While LMU continued to struggle from the field Anderson finally found the range, and stepped up its defense in the process.
While the tourney's top seed was getting points from inside and outside the arc, the 'Splitters were held scoreless the final 5:24 of the quarter.
The result was a 35-18 AU lead at intermission, leaving the No. 5 seed a massive crater to try to climb out of.