Hickory, N.C. ? The Lincoln Memorial University Men?s Basketball Team (14-2, 5-1) remained in first place in the South Atlantic Conference with a 69-63 win over Lenoir-Rhyne University (3-13, 1-5) Saturday night at Shuford Memorial Gymnasium.

LMU?s Scott Erland (Pegram, Tenn.) finished with a team-high 16 points and hit all five three-point attempts while D?Mario Curry (Detroit, Mich.) added 13 points and 15 rebounds to lead the Railsplitters to their fourth straight victory.

Lenoir-Rhyne junior forward D.J. Blackmon (Albemarle, N.C.) led all scorers with 22 points to go along with 11 rebounds but the Bears suffered their fifth straight defeat.

Trailing 42-37 with 15:09 left in the contest, the Railsplitters went on a 18-2 run to take its biggest advantage of the game at 55-44 on a three-point play by Brandon Armstrong (Decatur, Ga.) at the 8:32 mark of the second half.

The Bears were able to cut the advantage down to three on a pair of free throws by Blackmon to make it 61-58 with 1:12 left but couldn?t get any closer.

LMU made eight free throws in the final 1:04 to hold on for the victory.?? The Railsplitters made 24-of-38 free throw attempts including 15-of-23 in the second half.

The Railsplitters also limited the Bears to just 30 percent (20-of-66) shooting for the game including 25 percent (six-of-24) from three-point land.

Freshman guards Kameko Walls (Winston-Salem, N.C.) and Spenser Sydney (Lincolnton, N.C.) added 10 points each for the Bears in the losing effort.

L-R does not play again until next Saturday when it travels to Jefferson City, Tenn., to face Carson-Newman at 8 p.m., while Lincoln Memorial University faces Catawba on Wednesday beginning at 8 p.m., in Salisbury, N.C.