AIKEN, S.C. – Facing one of the top teams in the nation, No. 20 Clayton State (0-1, 0-0 PBC) could not overcome an offensive assault as No. 3 Lincoln Memorial (1-0, 0-0 SAC) powered their way to a season opening 82-61 victory in an NCAA Division II men's basketball game on Friday, November 9.
 
Junior guard Kyle Kincey (Tallahassee, Fla.) finished with 15 points and five rebounds to pace the Lakers in scoring while redshirt-senior guard Aubrey McRae (Augusta, Ga.) notched his first career double-double with 13 points and a career-high 12 boards, five offensive.
 
Senior guard Justin Tuckson (Stafford, Va.) finished with nine points, three steals and three assists and redshirt-senior forward JaCarl Owens (Orlando, Fla.) added six points and nine boards. Junior guard Christoff Nairn (West Palm Beach, Fla.) chipped in with nine points and four caroms and freshman guard Arusha Hunter (Snellville, Ga.) came away with four points and seven boards.
 
In a rematch of last year's NCAA Division II Southeast Region Semifinal, the teams came out trading baskets, with Clayton State ahead 4-3 in the opening minutes, before it quickly turned in favor of the Railsplitters. Back-to-back threes by Cornelius Taylor and Alex Dahling ignited a massive 37-7 run over a span of 10:54 that left LMU with a daunting 40-11 lead with 6:40 left in the half.
 
The Lakers would recover briefly from that blitzkrieg to notch a mini 5-0 run, four of which came from McRae. He would add a traditional three-point play and a jumper to cut it to 45-21 by the 2:29 mark before Lincoln Memorial headed to the half with a 51-23 advantage.
 
Having recovered from the opening 20 minutes, Clayton State was able to play at a much higher level in the second half as they outscored last year's region finalist 38-31. They would eventually get the lead down to a 17 point spread, 66-49, with 8:05 to play but that would be as close as they would get as the Railsplitters pushed the lead back to 28 points at 82-54 before closing out the 82-61 victory.
 
Taylor led LMU with a game-high 22 points along with eight boards and five assists while Anthony Brown and Xavier Bledson each notched double-doubles. Brown had 10 points and 10 rebounds and Bledson finished with 11 caroms and 10 points to go with three steals. Kamaran Calhoun and Julius Brown added 11 and 10 points, respectively, to round out the top performances.
 
The Lakers are right back in action tomorrow, Saturday, November 10, when they take on Tusculum for just the third time in program history. Game time is set for 1:30 p.m. in Aiken, South Carolina.
 
NOTES
The game was the first of two for Clayton State at the SAC/PBC Challenge, featuring LMU, USC Aiken and Tusculum.