Wingate, N.C.----On Saturday, the Wingate University men’s basketball team will welcome one of one of the top teams in the country as number five Lincoln Memorial University comes to Cuddy Arena for a 4 p.m. tip-off. The top-ranked team in the nation two weeks ago, LMU is the first ranked men’s team to appear in Cuddy Arena since number 23 Catawba on January 7, 2009.
           
Both teams will look to bounce back from tough Wednesday losses. The Bulldogs hosted first-place Anderson (S.C.) University as the South Atlantic Conference schedule reached the halfway mark. The Trojans came away with a 70-54 victory to increase their conference record to 9-0. Wingate led only once during the game, but kept the deficit within seven before seeing Anderson pull away during the final five minutes. Senior guard Jaime Vaughn (Tallahassee, Fla.) led the Bulldogs with 11 points, while junior Odell Turner (Charlotte, N.C.) pulled down nine rebounds.
 
Lincoln Memorial dropped its second game of the season and first in 30 games at Tex Turner Arena with a 64-61 defeat at the hands of arch-rival Carson-Newman Wednesday. Sophomore forward Vincent Bailey (Jennings, Fla.) led the Railsplitters with 14 points, while senior forward Desmond Johnson (Lynch, Ky.) added 10 points. Johnson also had a game-high 10 rebounds. LMU senior guard Brandon Armstrong (Decatur, Ga.) leads the SAC in free throw percentage, converting 41 of 45 attempts for a .911 percentage.
 
Lincoln Memorial won the regular season and tourna­ment crowns last year. In the first 2011-12 meeting in Harrogate, Tenn. on Nov. 30, the Bulldogs erased a 35-26 halftime deficit to trail by two with five seconds left, but they were unable to pull out a vic­tory as the Railsplitters prevailed 65-61. Bulldog junior guard Paidrick Matilus (Boynton Beach, Fla.) scored 22 points to lead the visitors.
 
LMU has won its past five meetings with the Bulldogs, including the 68-58 Food Lion SAC Tournament championship game triumph March 6, 2011. Johnson led the LMU attack with 24 points and 10 rebounds. The SAC Player of the Year hit seven-of-14 shots from the field and 10-of-12 free throws, while also handing out a team-high four assists. Turner had 18 points and nine rebounds to lead the Wingate attack, hitting eight-of-12 shots from the field. Vaughn added 12 points, four rebounds and three assists, joining Turner on the all-tournament squad.
 
Vaughn leads Wingate with 15.3 points per game. Turner contributes 11.7 points per game and a team-best 7.2 rebounds per game. Matilus adds 11.6 points per game. LMU junior forward Jake Troyli (Largo, Fla.) tops the Railsplitter charts with 11.6 points per game. Armstrong averages 11.4 points per game, while Bailey contributes 11.2 points per game and a team-high 6.5 rebounds per game. Lincoln Memorial averages 85.1 points per game, second on the SAC charts to Newberry’s 89.4 points per contest.
 
WINGATE UNIVERSITY
 
Founded in 1896, Wingate University is a comprehensive university with more than 2,500 students on three campuses in Wingate, Matthews and Hendersonville, N.C. The university offers 34 undergraduate majors, 37 minors and career concentrations, numerous pre-professional programs, graduate degrees in business, accounting, physician assistant studies and sports administration and doctorates in pharmacy and education.
 
Wingate students gain the tools and support they need to excel in academics and apply that learning toward an extraordinary career and life. The campus community offers in-class learning, out-of-class experiences, strong mentors, a competitive yet caring environment and rewarding community service opportunities for a complete educational experience.
 
Bulldog student-athletes compete in 19 NCAA Division II sports. Wingate University has won the South Atlantic Conference Echols Athletic Excellence Award for the past five years.
 
Wingate University is ranked number three among NCAA Division II Academic All-America® producing schools in the 2000’s with 42 honorees during this millennium. Only Pittsburg State (Kan.) University and Truman State (Mo.) University have produced more Academic All-America® honorees during this time period. Wingate’s 51 Academic All-America® honorees (lifetime) is tops among all SAC schools.
 
(Wingate University senior Steven Grandy contributed this article. A Sport Management major from Raleigh, N.C., Grandy won the District III Athlete Profile portion of the CoSIDA Fred Stabley, Sr. Writing Contest in 2010.)