Live Video: Queens Sports Network
Phil Constantino (pxp), Reginald Walker Jr. (color)

Live Stats
 
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The 21^st-ranked Queens University of Charlotte men's basketball team (8-2, 2-0 SAC) renews its rivalry with Lincoln Memorial University (5-2, 2-0 SAC) on Saturday afternoon in a White Out at the Levine Center. All fans are encouraged to wear white, and the Queens Campus Union Board is sponsoring a t-shirt swap. Students who bring a t-shirt bearing the logo of another school can trade it in for a Queens t-shirt or buy one for $5. All t-shirts collected by the Queens CUB will be donated to charity. Opening tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.

On Saturday, Queens and Lincoln Memorial meet for the 20th time, with the Railsplitters holding a 15-4 all-time advantage. Queens won the most recent meeting with LMU on Mar. 13, 2018, 69-57, in last season's championship game of the NCAA Division II Southeast Regional. The win gave Queens its first victory over its rival on the road (LMU had previously been 7-0), and advanced the Royals to the Elite Eight for the third time overall and the first time in 15 years.

In the last two years, Queens and LMU have met eight times, four times each year, with the Railsplitters holding a 5-3 edge. Five of the eight meetings have been decided by one possession. In all eight meetings, at least one of the two teams have been nationally ranked, and in each of the last four meetings, both teams have been ranked in the top-10 nationally.

The two teams have been the class of the South Atlantic Conference over the previous three seasons. Since the start of the 2015-2016 campaign, Queens and LMU have finished in the top two spots of the conference's final standings, hold a combined record of 196-30 (.867 win pct.), and have both reached the No. 1 national ranking.

Two years ago, during the 2016-2017 season, Queens beat LMU in the conference championship game, 75-72, before losing to the Railsplitters in the Southeast Regional Final, 82-68, on its home floor. Last year, the Royals returned the favor. After dropping the conference championship game, 77-75, Queens picked up the Sweet 16 win over Lincoln Memorial on the road.

In each of the last four seasons, one of the two sides has ended the other's season, and in each of the last three years, the winner of the final matchup has advanced to at least the national semifinals.

Tickets are $6 and all Queens students will receive free admission with their Queens ID card.

Quick Facts
No. 21/16 Queens Royals (8-2, 2-0 SAC)
(Game Notes)

-Last time out, Shaun Willett scored 21 points with 12 rebounds, to lead three Royals with at least 20 points, as Queens defeated reigning CIAA Tournament Champion Virginia Union University, on the road, 92-72, to win its third-straight game and its seventh in its last eight contests. Willett posted his eighth double-double in 10 games while Daniel Carr and Van Turner Jr. each scored 20 points apiece.

-Queens was named the season's first NCAA Division II Team of the Week by the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC), for its performance Nov. 25-Dec. 1. The Royals finished last week 2-0, with a road win over then-No. 23 Lenoir-Rhyne University, 76-69, and a win over Anderson University, 79-77.
 
-Several Royals rank near the top of the League's statistical categories one month into the season. Carr currently ranks sixth in the SAC in scoring, averaging 17.7 points per game, and third in assists, with 5.6 assists per game. Willett is tied for seventh in scoring, averaging 17.0 points per. He also leads the League in rebounding and ranks fifth nationally with 10.9 rebounds per game. Lewis Diankulu is the League's sixth-leading rebounder with 7.3 boards per game. Turner is tied for sixth in 3-point shooting (52.0%), while Carr is 12th (48.9%).

-As a team, Queens is shooting 50.7 percent (No. 22 NCAA, No. 2 SAC) and 43.6 percent from three (No. 8 NCAA, No. 1 SAC).

-Since allowing 87 points in each of the first two games of the season, the Royals have ramped it up defensively. Queens has held each of its last eight opponents to less than 80 points, three of its last seven to less than 70 points, and are allowing an average of 72.3 points per game in that stretch. The Royals are holding opponents to 42.2-percent shooting over the eight games, having twice in that span held an opponent under 40-percent shooting.

-For another week, Queens remained in the official coaches' poll, improving four spots to No. 21 in the most recent edition of the NABC/Division II Rankings released on Tuesday. The placement in the third official poll of the season marked the 48th consecutive week in which Queens has been featured in the national rankings dating back to the first poll of the 2015-2016 season on Nov. 24, 2015. The Royals opened the year at No. 7 in the coaches' poll and have cracked the top-10 nationally during each of the last four seasons. Additionally, Queens appeared at No. 16 nationally in the D2SIDA Media Poll released on Tuesday. The Royals are ranked second in the Southeast Region with a region record of 7-1.

-Head Coach Bart Lundy is in his sixth season since returning to Queens and his 11^th overall at the helm in Charlotte. In 17 years as a head coach in Division I and II, Lundy has posted an overall record of 336-170 (.664 win pct.) and a record at Queens of 240-83 (.743 win pct.). Lundy has led Queens to all three of its Elite Eight appearances.
 
Lincoln Memorial Railsplitters (5-2, 2-0 SAC)

-Lincoln Memorial is 5-2, 2-0 in conference play, and has fallen out of the national rankings after starting the season at No. 3 in the coaches' poll.

-The Railsplitters have suffered loses to the University of South Carolina Aiken, 79-68, on Nov. 10, and Christian Brothers University, 81-75, on Nov. 17, but have rattled off four consecutive wins, most recently beating Coker College, 99-72, on Saturday.

-Lincoln Memorial lost five of its top six scorers off of last year's team that finished 32-2 and ranked No. 1 nationally.

-The Splitters are led by Cornelius Taylor, the only returning starter, a preseason first-team all-conference selection, and a preseason All-American by Street & Smith's. Taylor is third in the SAC in scoring, averaging 21 points per game, and recently scored his 1,000th career point in a career-high 34-point performance versus Coker.

-LMU has claimed at least a share of the conference championship in each of the last six seasons, reached two of the last three Elite Eights, and won 36 straight regular-season conference games. The Railsplitters last lost a conference regular-season game on Jan. 9, 2017, at Queens, 103-101, in overtime.

-Head Coach Josh Schertz is in his 11^th season and sports a record of 271-57 (.841 win pct.). A former assistant of Lundy's at both Queens and High Point University, Schertz has led Lincoln Memorial to nine-straight 20-win seasons and four-straight 30-win seasons.