Staff report

SALISBURY — Lincoln Memorial got the ball in the paint, shot almost 63 percent from the floor and beat Catawba’s men’s basketball team 84-74 on Saturday in front of 290 fans at Goodman Arena.

The South Atlantic Conference game was as close as it was because Kris Robinson made four 3-pointers for the Indians and because Catawba had only eight turnovers.

Unfortunately for the Indians, Robinson was the only on the roster who made a 3-pointer and Catawba put up 21 shots from long range. LMU (4-1, 2-0) took only nine 3-point attempts, making three, but was able to beat the Indians two points at a time.

The Railsplitters earned a whopping 44 free-throw attempts, but missed 17 of them to help keep Catawba in the game.

Catawba (4-3, 2-2) pulled down an impressive 18 offensive rebounds but the Indians, who shot 37 percent, couldn’t turn very many of those ORs into second-chance points.

Robinson scored 18, Caleb Jones had 13, and Justin Banks, who had a lot of those offensive rebounds, scored 11.

Elyjah Freeman scored 20 for the visitors.

Catawba has another tough home game on Wednesday, as Lenoir-Rhyne, 4-1 in the SAC, visits at 7:30 p.m.

Lincoln Memorial    36   48   — 84

Catawba                     37   37    — 74

CATAWBA scoring — Robinson 18, Jones 13, Banks 11, Buchanan 10, Tinsley 8, Athie 4, Walker 4, Thomas 3, Hawkins 2, Chase Daniel 1.