The South Carolina High School Leagues completed its playoffs this past Saturday, but the college postseason is just beginning for three Orangeburg-Wilkinson graduates.

Guards Rob Fields and Ahmad Murphy of Catawba College and forward Zachary Barron of Benedict College saw their teams earn at-large bids to the NCAA Division II men’s basketball tournament. The trio will open play for their respective teams at noon this Saturday at separate locations.

For the second straight week, Barron’s Tigers find themselves returning to the state of Alabama. This time, Benedict (25-4) will head to the campus of Montevallo College where the third-seed Tigers will face sixth-seed Eckerd College (25-5).

The winner will face either second-season Valdosta State or Rollins College in the next round of the NCAA South Region bracket.

Sunshine State Conference tournament champions, the Tritons out of St. Petersburg, Fla., enter the contest winners of nine straight. Meanwhile, Benedict has dropped two of its last three games, including a 73-64 loss this past Saturday to Albany State in the semifinals of the Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference tournament in Birmingham, Ala.

Benedict head coach and SIAC Coach of the Year Fred Watson will look to count on his 6-6 sophomore’s leadership skills to help turn things around.

“Zach is our stability,” Watson told The State. “He keeps his calm and that helps our team. He also raises the energy level. He’s a great teammate in so many different ways and our guys like playing with him and for him just because of the way he leads.”

The son of O-W boys’ basketball coach Alex Barron and younger brother of St. Louis Rams’ offensive lineman Alex Barron, Zachary Barron averaged 7.5 points and 4.2 rebounds per game during the regular season. He had a season-best 27 points in a loss to Augusta State University.

Ironically, that’s the campus where Fields and Murphy will play their first-round NCAA Division II playoff game. The sixth-seeded Tribe (20-11) will face third-seeded Clayton State (23-6) of the Peach Belt Conference in a first-round NCAA South Atlantic Region contest at Augusta State University.

The contest is a rematch of the Walter Baker Classic played Dec. 2 on Catawba’s homecourt in Salisbury, N.C. and won by the Lakers 76-75 on a 3-pointer by John Beugnot with three seconds remaining. Catawba went on to win its second South Atlantic Conference regular-season title in three seasons and had won 11 straight prior to Sunday’s 97-82 loss to Wingate in the conference tournament final.

Making its first-ever NCAA Division II playoff appearance, Clayton State is also coming off a conference tournament final loss. The Morrow, Ga., school was defeated by Lander 75-61 in Sunday’s final played in Greenwood.

Potential rematches loom for both teams. Should the Tribe win, it would face the winner of the 2:30 p.m. game between seventh-seeded Lander (20-10) and second-seeded and last year’s national runner-up Virginia Union (21-5). The Panthers have eliminated Catawba from the postseason two straight years en route to back-to-back NCAA Division II final appearances.

A consistent presence in the starting lineup during his four seniors at Catawba, Murphy is the team’s steals leader with 54. He’s fourth on the team in scoring at eight points per game, third in rebounds (3.9 boards per game) and his 74 assists is second only to All-SAC backcourt mate Brian Graves. Over the last two years, Murphy has averaged 13 points a contest.

As a freshman, Fields played in all 30 games for Catawba and is sixth on the team in minutes played at 15.4 per game. He’s second on the Tribe in three-point shooting percentage at 37 percent, third in free-throw shooting at 79.2 percent and is averaging 6.1 points per game.

n Newberry’s Johnson

named to SAC

all-Freshman

While his former Bruin teammates compete in the Division II playoffs, Newberry College redshirt freshman center Kendrick Johnson will head into the off-season with conference honors.

Johnson was named to the South Atlantic Conference’s all-Freshman Team. Despite missing the first seven games of the season, Johnson shattered the school record for career blocks with 45 and tied the single-game mark of five blocks three times.

Catawba’s Antonio Houston, a freshman from Charlotte, N.C., was named SAC Freshman of the Year. He averaged 16.4 points, third best in the conference, and was fifth in the league in three-pointers made per game. He was joined on the All-Freshman Team by Jordan Dixon of Carson-Newman; Beau Brown of Lincoln Memorial; Stoney Polite of Mars Hill and Johnson.

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